Out of the Shadows and Into the Light
by KyliaQuilor
Summary: For his whole life, Ward has lived his life in shadows - cast first by his family, and then by Garrett. But with Garrett dead and the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. rising to the challenge of Hydra and Daniel Whitehall, Ward will finally step into the light - the light cast by Skye. Struggling to overcome his past with Skye's help, Ward will one day be the good man Skye deserves.
1. The New Hires

**Disclaimer:** No. Not mine. Skyeward Shipper here, remember?

 **Note:** Okay, so, as I suggested in _A Different Choice_ , this fic will cover (more or less) the events of season 2a in the Alternate Universe of ADC. So, to recap: Ward turned on Garrett in favor of Skye, whom he is now in a relationship with. Skye knows about Ward and Garrett and Hydra, but hasn't told anyone else, out of fear they'll lock him up rather than give him the second chance she thinks he deserves. FitzSimmons were not dropped into the ocean, and Eric Koenig was not killed. Fitz did get hit with a number of bullets in the side and arm, forcing him to require surgery and undergo some physical therapy to be able to use his arm properly again. The team also managed to acquire a cloak-capable quinjet when rescuing Skye from Garrett, which is, of course, a rather big deal. It would be better to read _A Different Choice_ before reading this, but the pertinent details of that fic are outlined above, so you don't _have_ to.

 **Note 2:** _A Different Choice_ was a story that focused on Skyeward with a very tight lens – everything was, more or less, devoted to advancing the Skye and Ward storyline in one way or the other. _Out of the Shadows and Into the Light_ will have plenty of Skyeward and Skyeward will be _a_ main focus, but it will not be **the** main focus. Because of that, we will also see two additional viewpoint enter the roster in addition to Skye and Ward. I will not say now who those two will be – I'll just let you find out when it happens.

 **Note 3:** _Out of the Shadows and Into the Light_ starts a few months after the end of _A Different Choice_. Ward has made some progress by this point, though he's still got some serious issues with right and wrong and he's still very, very devoted to Skye – she's still basically the center of his universe in virtually every way. But he's not in exactly the same place he was at the end of ADC.

Thanks to Colormeblue/Reily Holden for their beta-reading services. You're a great help. ^^

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 1: The New Hires

 **Ward's Bedroom, The Playground**

 **July 24th, 2014**

Grant Ward no longer had to convince himself he wasn't dreaming when he woke up with Skye in his arms. It had taken him a while, but he had eventually managed it. Well, Skye had managed it. She'd made it clear she wasn't going anywhere. That despite his past, she was with him, she was there for him, as his girlfriend and his friend, and as the person who was going to help him become a better man.

 _Become the man she deserves. Or at least, more of that man._ Ward knew full well that he could never do anything to truly _deserve_ Skye. She was unattainable, and he was only thankful that she chose to be with him regardless.

Another thing that had helped is that he'd woken up with at least one arm wrapped around Skye's midsection almost every morning since they'd moved to the Playground. It was usually in her bedroom but occasionally his bedroom. Of course, this room was barely his as it was – he slept in it maybe one night in five.

Not that Ward had any complaints. Opening his eyes, he looked down at Skye, the bedsheets clinging to her body as it was pressed up against his, her eyes closed and her breathing soft and even. God, he loved her so much it almost hurt. Just seeing her like this... happy, peaceful, content and trusting him enough to be here, like this...

Of course, on a purely physical level he very much enjoyed Skye's naked body being pressed up against his equally unclothed one, but that was a distinctly secondary enjoyment, as far as he was concerned. If Skye hadn't wanted sex, he wouldn't push the issue at all – so far, she'd initiated sex every time, he would never want her to feel pressured.

 _Then again, she's perfectly capable of not being pressured, whatever I do._ Skye was never one who had a hard time expressing her feelings and opinions.

Ward just looked at her, sleeping, wanting to reach down and run his fingers through her long hair, but he resisted the urge. He was an early riser – Skye? Not so much. She'd gotten more used to it, thanks to her training and the needs of missions, but she didn't like it, and he always tried to avoid waking her up this early – just past five-thirty, the time he was always awake.

 _Thank you **so much** for that, John_. He'd developed that habit to survive John's surprise visits in the early morning with minimal pain. _If only I'd let that be a hint to me about just how little John cared_.

Well, no... Ward refused to accept that John hadn't, in his own way, cared. Whatever John's reasons, John had helped him. Saved him. But... as Skye had told him again and again, and explained to him in great detail, John had also done more than _just_ help him. He'd changed him, and...

And not entirely for the better...

 _Far from it, really_.

If it hadn't been for Skye, he'd never have realized it.

 _One more thing to thank her for._ He had so much to thank her for – for giving him a chance, for believing in him... for being the first person he'd met in a long, long time to really care about him as a person, to want to get to know _him_.

Ward let his head fall back onto the pillow, keeping his arm around Skye. He lay there, losing all track of time, just having her near him. Early riser or not, he wasn't going to leave any sooner than he had to. Not with Skye here. Not today anyway. Most days he got up, worked out, took a shower and was back in bed before Skye woke up, but today... he wanted to stay with her.

According to the clock, it was nearly seven when Skye finally started to stir, turning a little in the bed, her eyes opening. Ward leaned in and pressed a light kiss to her lips. "Morning." He murmured.

"Morning." She groaned back. She blinked back sleep and looked over at him, "You know, it's a little bit weird the way you sometimes just stay there after you wake up while I'm still asleep."

"How do you know I've been that awake long?" Ward asked.

"Grant, it's-" She rolled over and looked at the digital clock on the bedside, "6:58, and when was the last time you _didn't_ wake up at 5:30?"

Grant managed a small laugh. "Point taken." Skye moved in and pressed her lips to his lightly, winding one arm around his waist. After a moment, she pulled back.

"Do we have anywhere else to be this morning?" Skye asked, "At least, right this second?"

"Nothing I can think of. Coulson's coming back from another recruiting trip this afternoon, but apart from that..." Ward shrugged. "Nothing pressing." By this point he should have expected what came next, but Skye always managed to surprise him when she pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist, the sheets falling off her body.

"Good." Skye smirked and leaned down over him, pressing her lips to his, moving her hands down his chest.

 **Lounge Area, The Playground  
July 24th, 2014**

"The governments of the world continue to do nothing about an illegal detention center operated by a terrorist organization! This so-called 'Fridge's' continued existence is a spit in the eye of every country that has moved against S.H.I.E.L.D. in the aftermath of the agency's collapse! I can't understand why we're allowing this facility to exist." Skye watched the pundit continue to rant and rave about S.H.I.E.L.D. It was still a hot topic on international news networks – hardly surprising – and an ongoing political football in the United States and most other countries. Parties and officials in power were desperately trying to prove that they were on top of the S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra problem, and opposition parties were throwing blame on the people in charge for 'letting' this happen.

 _Leaving aside that when they were in charge, they were just as supportive of letting S.H.I.E.L.D. do its thing._ Skye had never had much respect for politicians, either as a group or individually, and the way they'd raced to dismantle and claim the pieces of S.H.I.E.L.D. that they could, while labeling it a terrorist organization right alongside Hydra wasn't doing much to endear them to her.

"Not that I'm complaining at all," Simmons started, "But I have to admit that I don't understand why no one has tried to shut down the Fridge."

"Well, there's the fact that it's kind of hard to get into it." Skye pointed out. "Agent Hand has had the place on total lockdown since she took over. And I'm not an expert, but those fusion generators she's got will run for a _long_ time without any problem."

"Years still." Fitz interjected, looking up from his tablet. "One of my classmates at the Academy helped design them. They're top of the line, very far ahead anyone else might have."

"If any government actually wanted to devote its resources to taking down the Fridge, they could do it. Drop enough bunker busters and it would work, or throw enough manpower at the problem and they could do it." Grant disagreed. Skye turned in her chair a little to see him walking into the lounge, his shirt soaked with sweat from his workout in the gym.

"Then why haven't they, if it's that easy?" Simmons asked. "Like I said, I'm not complaining, but I don't understand. I would think Director Coulson would have ordered her to bring her people here before someone could come to try to shut it down – it's not as if the base doesn't have the room, and we're desperately short on manpower."

"Right now, the Fridge is protected because everyone sees it as Someone Else's Problem." Grant explained, walking over and muting the television. Skye could hear the capital letters in the last three words, and it only took her a second to realize what he meant.

"The Fridge is smack dab in the middle of international waters." Skye reached a hand up to push a stray hair behind her ear. "So it's no one's responsibility. No one wants to 'throw enough manpower' at it to take it down, right?"

"That would be my guess, yeah." Grant confirmed. "That and no one wants the responsibility of letting the people in the Fridge go. Apart from guys like Quinn, everyone there is either very dangerous and unstable, or stable and even more dangerous. And who else has the resources to hold the gifted people who got taken there?"

"I think this is the first time I'm happy about the Somebody Else's Problem effect." Skye commented. "Outside of like, a SEP field in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or something."

"Or a perception filter, like on Doctor Who." Simmons added brightly. Then she frowned, "I don't know. I just... I can't help but worry that it isn't a sustainable option."

"Maybe not." Coulson's voice came from the other entrance to the lounge. "But we'll have to worry about that when we get to it. Or at least, not right now. We have enough problems without having everyone inside the Fridge being loose."

Skye turned to see Coulson walking into the lounge. May was right behind him, and right behind her were three people Skye had never seen before. But she was going to guess that the Director's latest recruiting trip had worked out well this time.

"Agent Hartley." Grant nodded to one of them, a dark-haired woman that vaguely reminded Skye of Xena.

"Ward." She nodded back.

"This is Agent Hartley and her team, Agent Idaho and Lance Hunter." Coulson gestured to each of them in turn. "You've already met May, and you know Ward, Hartley." Skye watched him gestured to FitzSimmons, and then here. "And these are Agents Fitz and Simmons, our science experts, and Agent Skye, primarily Communications." Which was true. Grant had continued her training, intensifying it as they wanted, but given her skillset, she was still primarily working coms. But her skill at hacking meant she had to be in the field from time to time to, if they needed to access a computer on the inside.

"A pleasure to meet you all, I'm sure." The one called Hunter said dryly in a British accent. "Rah-rah for S.H.I.E.L.D. and all that." Even to Skye's mind, the sarcasm in that sentence was pretty off the charts. She hadn't missed the fact that AC – sorry, DC – hadn't referred to this guy as an Agent.

Looking over at Fitz and Simmons, Skye chuckled. "Someone else from the Mother Country for you to hang out with, at least?"

Grant looked over at May. "Is this the Lance Hunter who was married to Morse? The ex-SAS agent?"

"What other Lance Hunter would be working with Hartley?" May asked back dryly.

"You know my she-devil of an ex-wife?" Hunter let out a dark chuckle. "My sympathies, mate."

"I met her a few times. Operations is a pretty small world." Her boyfriend said to the Brit, then: "How'd you make it through the Fall?" Grant asked Hartley.

"My team," she gestured towards Hunter and Idaho, "and I were undercover in a weapons ring when the fall came. We had no clue who to trust, so we mostly stayed off the radar for a while, 'till Coulson here made contact. Kind of a shock to find out that he was still alive." She looked over at Coulson. "You still have to fill me in on that."

 _Oh trust me, that's a whole bunch of stuff you don't want to know._ It was a complicated mess at _best_ , and Skye doubted Hartley would be filled in.

"That's classified, I'm afraid." Coulson said, proving her right. Skye didn't miss the eyeroll from Hunter. She couldn't blame him, much. Despite secrets being what had brought down S.H.I.E.L.D. before, Coulson was still keeping all kinds of things secret, playing his cards _really_ close to his chest.

She didn't _distrust_ AC. She trusted him, and... if he was keeping secrets, it had to be for a good reason. But it still didn't sit right with her, on a very basic level. She couldn't help it. She hadn't joined the Rising Tide _just_ to find out about her past, her parents. She'd believed in its ideas. She still believed, mostly.

She trusted Coulson, even if she didn't trust S.H.I.E.L.D., even now, especially now. But she could understand why someone else would react like that to 'it's classified'.

"Well, you seven can get to know each other. May, a word in my office?" He gestured to the stairs leading up and Skye watched the two of them walk up into his office..

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

Being called up to Coulson's office was something Ward was used to. What he wasn't used to was seeing Simmons there already, looking somewhere between terrified and determined.

"May said you needed to talk to me?"

"I did. Have a seat." Coulson gestured to the other chair next to Simmons, and Ward sat. "As I've just been explaining to Simmons, we need a set of eyes and ears in Hydra. Well, no, we need a set of eyes and ears in Hydra's science division. They took a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tech and researchers when the agency fell, and we need to be on top of what it is that they're focusing those resources on."

Ward could put the pieces together. "You want to send Simmons undercover into Hydra? Sir, that's- that's a terrible idea."

"If it was something other than needing to stay on top of their R&D, I'd want to send you in, Ward. You're the best we have on infiltration." _Yes, but sending me into Hydra_. Ward couldn't do that. He couldn't go into Hydra. He'd _been_ Hydra. He couldn't... couldn't be it again. Not even pretend.

He didn't think John would have told anyone outside of his network that Ward had turned on him. It would have meant admitting defeat, failure, and seeming weak, and John hated to seem weak. But... there was a risk of being recognized. Of being asked about John's death...

Good at his job or not, there was a lot of risk of being caught, but Coulson didn't know that.

Still... what the hell was Coulson thinking? Simmons couldn't lie worth a damn, and she had no experience with undercover work.

"Sir, you can't sent Simmons in alone-"

"She won't be alone. There's another agent already in Hydra, but not R&D. They'll know Simmons is going in, but the less people who know about them, the better." Ward could understand that. Compartmentalizing the infiltration. He felt a little better, knowing Coulson wasn't sending Simmons in alone, but still. "Speaking of that, as far as anyone on this base apart from you, me, Simmons and May will be concerned, Simmons will be leaving to visit her family, taking some time away from the agency after everything that's happened."

Once again, Ward could understand that. Even if he could imagine all the ways it could go wrong on this end – especially when Fitz started getting agitated about the lack of contact, about Simmons being gone. "Why am I being read into this?"

"Because I need you to spend the next week helping Simmons get ready. I need you to teach her how to lie."

Simmons gripped the arms of her chair tightly. "Director Coulson, as much as I'm willing to do this if this is what needs to be done – I'm not sure Agent Ward can just... teach me how to lie in just a week."

 _Not hardly._ "There were whole classes on it at the OpsAcademy." Ward confirmed, something Coulson would know full well. He'd already had a head start, thanks to his family and especially thanks to John, but every specialist had to learn how to lie, and Ward had excelled at those classes like so many others.

"I'm aware. But we don't exactly have an endless supply of options. We're barely keeping our heads above water – and the only thing that's letting us do that much is the fact that Hydra seems just as interested in regrouping as we are." Coulson let out a sigh. "We're operating blind, and we need to know the moment Hydra starts going on the offensive again."

"Sir, I will go." Simmons said. "I just-"

"You'll go if Agent Ward decides you're capable of getting in and staying alive." Coulson looked over at Ward, giving him a look. Ward could figure what he meant. A week really wasn't enough and Coulson knew it, but a crash-course... it wasn't impossible to get her somewhere. Unfortunately, that somewhere was still not very good.

But Coulson was right – they needed this intel.

"I'm not interested in sending you out there to die. If Ward thinks you can get in, then I'll send you in."

"How exactly do you plan to get her in? You can't just have her walk up to a Hydra recruiting office. Is she going as herself? Or someone else?" If Ward only had a week, these were answers he needed.

"That's classified, Ward. The less you know, the better."

"If I only have a week, then I need to know what cover story she'll be using to get in, sir. I won't have time to teach everything there is to know about going undercover."

Coulson said nothing for a moment, then nodded. "I'll have it for you tomorrow. In the mean time, get started." He looked to Simmons, and then Ward. "And I mean it. No one else knows about this. Any of it."

 **Lab, The Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

Ward followed Simmons into the lab, looking out for Fitz. They really couldn't do this here, since Fitz would be in the lab most of the time. Not finding the Scottish engineer, Ward looked over at the biochemist, who was already looking at something through a microscope.

"Where's Fitz?"

Simmons looked up from the microscope long enough to grab another slide from a rack and slide it into place. "He's in the mainframe room, helping Skye upgrade the systems. She's handling the software side, he's handling the hardware. He'll be back in a half hour or so. I just need to wrap something up here, and then we can get started with..."

"A crash-course on being undercover?" Ward suggested.

"In an evil organization bent on world domination, yes." Simmons added. She let out a nervous giggle, "Oh god, there's no way I'm going to be able to do this. Hydra's not going to put me in prison if they find out – they're going to kill me-"

"Actually," Ward interrupted, "if they find out that you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, they might put you in prison for a while. Try and figure out what you know, if you know the names of any other spies in their ranks." _Of course, after a while at their hands, she might rather be dead_. Ward didn't know what particular tactics they might use on her, but John had made sure Ward was well versed in... coercive interrogation. Ward could remember the fights he'd had with John over it... he'd never really come to accept it the way he had killing people. Not to the same degree. It was messy, usually unnecessary and... much of it reminded him far too much of what Christian and his mother put him through.

It was something he'd never really come to accept, unlike so many of John's other 'lessons'. Pain was a motivator, but torture – very, very rarely was it even _useful_ , for most purposes.

"Agent Ward, I know you're not especially good at the reassuring people thing, so I'll just tell you, that wasn't an especially reassuring thing for you to say just now." Simmons replied, speaking quickly.

"I wasn't trying to be reassuring." Ward replied. "I was making sure you know exactly what you could be going into. You're going to be lying to everyone around you, all the time. The best way to make sure you don't slip is to focus on what could happen if you do." He watched Simmons scribble something down in a notebook then look back to the microscope. "Are you going to be done soon?"

Simmons wrote something else down, then pulled the slide away and put it back onto the tray. "Done now." She looked over at Ward and took a breath. "Okay, so... how exactly are we going to start this?"

"Not here, for one. The lab is too public." Ward gestured for her to follow him.

 **Vault D, The Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

This room wasn't originally designed as a prison cell, but it had been refurbished to be used as one. At the moment though, they didn't need it as such, since they didn't have a prisoners. But its isolated nature made it the perfect place to start Simmons' undercover lessons.

"Why are you joining Hydra?" Ward asked Simmons, raising his voice a little, speaking quickly, his tone harsh. "Why do you want to work for them?

Simmons took a step back. "I'm not 'joining' Hydra – I don't want to work for an evil-" Ward mimed shooting a gun and cut her off.

"You give an answer to that question in Hydra and you're either dead or in a cell inside of ten minutes." Ward told her in a more level tone. "Hydra's going to have a lot of questions for you, and they're going to want to know what it is that makes you want to be Hydra. Is it the money? Do Hydra's ideals appeal to you? Do you just like the idea of hurting people? What are you going to tell them? When you go undercover, the first rule is to lie as little as possible, even when someone with my training goes undercover. You need to find a reason that almost works, something that will be as true as possible.

"I am – was, I should say - relatively well paid for my services to S.H.I.E.L.D., but the private sector would always have allowed me higher remuneration. I received multiple offers a month from pharmaceutical and medical companies, think tanks, private laboratories... I imagine that this would be the case still. But money isn't what I'm after." Simmons replied quickly. "And Hydra's ideals – I still have no idea how anyone can be in favor of Hydra's plans for death and destruction across the globe."

 _Simmons not taking better offers would be a matter of record, if they did any digging, depending on what Coulson's plan is._ Ward already had an idea of what she could say that would actually be pretty close to the truth, from what he knew of the Biochemist and the way her mind worked. And as for their pay – well, they weren't _not_ being paid, exactly, but getting paychecks wasn't really happening anymore either. Ward could care less about that. If he needed money, he had stashes all over the country, and several in other countries.

"First of all, Hydra's ideas aren't 'death and destruction'," Ward corrected her. "You're not going to work for Evil Incorporated, where people keep track the number of babies they've killed this week or the puppies they've kicked." Ward took a breath. "Are there people in Hydra who were recruited because they liked killing people just a little too much? Because they were 'evil'? Yes. Like Kaminsky – he just liked being a brute. But Hydra is a set of ideals, not just a group dedicated to world domination. If it was just that, it would never have been able to penetrate as far as it did into S.H.I.E.L.D. How do you think even a man like Undersecretary Pierce ended up joining?"

"I- I didn't think about that." Simmons admitted. "Hydra is... Hydra is just the enemy."

"Yes. They are." Ward confirmed. "But you need to know just who you're co-workers are going to be. You need to know what you're walking into. Hydra is a lot more complicated – I spent _weeks_ studying the Russian Consulate in Warsaw before I went in for sixteen months there. We don't have the time or the intel for that kind of prep work right now, but you need to know just what it is that you're getting into."

Simmons nodded after a moment. "I – never really thought about that, but... then again, I've never really thought about Hydra as more than the enemy, or thought about going undercover into them before today."

"That's fine. This is my job, and for the next week, it's my job to get you ready for this mission." Ward said.

"Do you really think you can? In just a week?" Simmons seemed doubtful, and he couldn't blame her.

"It depends on how well you apply yourself, in part." Ward replied. "But I think you can be ready enough. I'll have a better idea of what it will take. Today, let's just get a few things down." Ward took a breath. Simmons needed to understand what Hydra believed – Ward had always thought the true believers were idiots, but for them, that belief was the core of why they were Hydra.

"Hydra believes that the world needs order. That when people are left free, chaos reigns. They look out the window and see all the war, poverty, crime and disease and wonder 'does it really have to be that way?' Lots of people wonder that, but for Hydra, their belief is that freedom, or at least, the amount people want to have, is the problem. That the best solution for war, terrorism, crime, starvation – everything wrong with the world – is control. Take over the world, enact and enforce strict laws, and everything will be solved."

"That's..." Simmons frowned, her brow furrowing. "I can almost understand that."

"There's a reason people who joined S.H.I.E.L.D., an agency that's about protection, went Hydra. Sure, there were people like Kaminsky, but what about Sitwell. I didn't know him _that_ well." Well, actually, that was a lie, he'd known Sitwell fairly well, comparatively, but officially, Agent Ward didn't. "But he always believed in S.H.I.E.L.D. In containing threats to keep people safe. And... well, I'm going to guess he still does, even in Federal Prison." Jasper Sitwell, along with a lot of the Hydra Loyalists who'd been at the Triskellion and hadn't gotten away, had been captured and shoved into prison. Unlike most, his trial had been highly publicized, and parts of it had even been aired by the news networks.

"This is something you're not going to like hearing – but the biggest differences between Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. are not about the fundamental goals – S.H.I.E.L.D. always was, and still is, as long as Coulson is in charge, about protection, about trying to control chaos and war and making most people's lives as peaceful and as safe as possible. Hydra wants that too. But Hydra will kill _anyone_ who gets in the way. There's not much Hydra won't do – Project Insight was going to kill... what, millions of people, if Captain America and Romanoff and everyone else hadn't stopped it?"

Ward watched Simmons frown more. He'd made his point, he was pretty sure. Ward took a breath. "You're going into a group where a lot of people genuinely believe that what they're doing is the right thing, that they're making the world a better place. You went to work every day thinking that. Still do, right?" Ward couldn't care less about the world being a better place as a whole. Before, it had been all about Garrett, now it was about Skye, and to a lesser extent, the team. As long as Skye was safe, that's what mattered.

Skye liked Simmons. Hell, Ward liked her. Hard not to. So he was going to help make sure she got through this mission alive.

"Yes." Simmons finally said after a moment. "Although that isn't really the reason I joined S.H.I.E.L.D., initially."

"Why did you join, then?" From everything Ward knew about her, he could guess the general idea of the answer.

"I was a 17-year-old girl with two PhDs and a million questions. S.H.I.E.L.D. had the resources to help me answer them. The Academy offered me a chance at a new, truly challenging educational environment, and then staying with S.H.I.E.L.D. offered me the chance to explore question after question, answering all of them as best I can. I got to work with some of the best and brightest in my fields."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't have the resources now, does it? Hydra has us outnumbered and while I don't know how much money Coulson has access to, I'll bet Hydra has more." Ward pointed out.

"That's quite likely, given the state of the lab, but I fail to see how that's-" Simmons cut herself off, her mouth open in a brief 'o' of understanding as something occurred to her. "That's my reason. You asked why I'd join Hydra, what reason I'd give them." She took a breath. "If I tossed all morality out of the window, Hydra would be the more appealing option in a lot of ways. The opportunities for research would be greater, and as you say, they would have more resources."

Ward nodded. "Then let's work on that. You need to convince Hydra that that's what's important to you – the opportunity to do the science you want to do. And that Hydra can offer it to you."

Simmons laughed a little, despite the seriousness of their discussion. "One doesn't 'do' science, Agent Ward. Science is not a verb."

Ward pointed a finger, smiling a little despite himself, "You don't get to use your Britishness against me, Simmons. That's the first rule of this, teaching you to lie thing we'll be doing for the next week." Simmons cracked a smile in response.

"Alright." Simmons paused. "You know a great deal about the way Hydra thinks, what they want. How they operate."

"Occupational hazard." Ward replied blandly, since he could hardly give her the truth. "I've been studying every scrap we can find on Hydra and the way they operate." Unsurprisingly, Simmons bought his answer. "Know your enemy, and you can defeat them."


	2. Secrets

**Disclaimer:** It ain't mine.

 **Note 1:** Another awesome bit of art from Evieoh serves as the cover. Many, many thanks extended to her for it. ^^

 **Note 2:** Meet one of the new POVs for the fic in this chapter. As for who it is... well, you'll need to read and find out. :p

Thanks to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for their beta-reading services. ^^

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 2: Secrets

 **Mainframe Room, The Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

"Alright, try it now." At Fitz's words, Skye booted up the program on her laptop, which was hooked into the Playground's mainframe server. This time, it ran successfully. "Did it work?" Fitz sat up, looking over at her.

Skye nodded. "This time it did. What was the problem?"

"Looks like one of the Koenig brothers unhooked a wire last time they were in here." Fitz said. "I keep telling them to let me take care of this sort of thing, and they keep not listening."

"Well, you do have a hell of a lot on your plate. I mean, it took you a month to get the quinjet's cloaking device to work on the Bus, and you're half our entire science department all on your own." Coulson had bitched about flying coach during that time too, during his recruiting trips overseas. But Fitz had been working as quickly as he could. She didn't understand most of the technical details he'd spat out at everyone when explaining why it was so difficult, but the short version, from what she gathered, was that the Quinjet's cloak just wasn't designed for a plane the Bus's size, or for a plane designed like the Bus in general.

Fitz pointed at her, his tone indignant. "It only took me a month because May would only let me work on the Bus when she was there watching me. As if I was going to screw up the systems. I swear, she loves that plane like it's her own child or something." He clambered to his feet. "It's getting to be about lunchtime. Want to go grab something from the cafeteria to celebrate getting this sorted out?" He gestured around the room.

"Didn't you just eat a whole bowl of popcorn an hour ago?" Skye asked him with a smile – he was always eating, and yet he never seemed to gain any weight. She couldn't help but be just a tiny bit jealous. "How are you not fat, with everything you eat?"

"Genetics." Fitz said with a smile of his own. Skye rolled her eyes and closed her laptop, unhooking it from the server and carrying it under one arm as she followed Fitz out of the room.

"Genetics is cheating." Skye mock-muttered under her breath. "But at least I don't look like I'm still in High School."

Fitz turned, playing along with her banter. "I keep telling you, one day, you'll all be wrinkly old hags, and I'll still be the one with the youthful appearance, and you'll all be jealous." He broke into brief laughter, and Skye couldn't help but join in.

 **Dining Room, The Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

As usual, Fitz's sandwich was twice as large as hers. She watched him finish assembling it, putting the top slice of bread on top and then carrying his plate over to the table.

"So what have you been working on lately, then, in that deep dark lab of yours?" Skye asked as he sat down.

"The Lab is on the ground floor, Skye. In plain view of everyone and everything."

"Yeah, but I can only understand maybe... a tenth of what you do, Fitz, and only when it has to do with computers. The only person on this base who can even kind of keep up is Simmons." She looked around a moment, wondering where Simmons was. She was probably working through lunch again, some fascinating project. Keeping both Fitz and Simmons eating and sleeping regularly was nearly a full time job for everyone on the base.

"Mack can keep up with me quite a bit too, actually," Fitz said, referring to the new former S.H.I.E.L.D. mechanic that Coulson had brought in a few weeks ago. Not the same way as Simmons can, of course," the engineer clarified. "But he knows his stuff." Fitz took a few bites of his sandwich and then set it back onto the plate. "As for what I'm working on – remember what you mentioned the first day we were here?"

Skye wracked her brain, trying to remember what he could be referring to. What she remembered most about that day was Grant, in the chair, proving once and for all that he wanted to do better, be better. That underneath everything his family and Garrett had done to him, underneath everything he'd done, he was a good man. And then, of course, after that.

"Uhm...no. Can't say I do. What do you mean?"

"An ICER that could be disassembled." Fitz answered, and Skye suddenly remembered mentioning that to Fitz, referring back to that conversation by the poolside. Skye had almost forgotten about the whole thing – too much else in her life to deal with. "Just the one for Ward, since there's really no point in it, but I don't see why Ward can't have one if he wants one." Fitz paused for a moment, then shrugged. "It's been a bit harder to get right than I thought, making it so it can come apart, go back together and still work, but shouldn't take me more than a few days." He pointed a finger at her, "No telling Ward, I want it to be a surprise for him."

Skye smiled. "All right. I won't tell him." She looked out the doors to the room, expecting to see Simmons on her way here. For that matter, where was Grant? She looked back over to Fitz. "Hey, where's Simmons?"

"Coulson called her up to his office." Fitz shrugged. "She'll tell us when she's done with whatever he needed."

"Probably." Skye agreed. When Fitz gave her a 'what?' look, Skye rolled her eyes and clarified: "I don't mean Simmons isn't going to tell you if you ask, I'm just not sure she'd be allowed to. I mean, I can't be the only one who's noticed that Coulson's been keeping things close to his chest. I mean, I get that he needs to keep some stuff secret, but there's _so much_ he's keeping a mystery."

"He's got to have a good reason." Fitz said softly. "I mean, we're being hunted by every government, not to mention Hydra's still out there. Secrets are going to be a thing, they're going to keep us from being arrested or killed."

"I know, I know." Skye waved her hand a little as she spoke, "I'm not saying keeping the secrets is a bad thing. Coulson knows what he's doing – he's a good guy, and I trust him. I just... it bothers me a little, is all. You know, less than a year ago I was trying to expose all of S.H.I.E.L.D. because Freedom of Information and all that. I'm not a big fan of secrets even if I get why they're a thing."

"No, I understand what you're saying. He is being especially secretive, compared to how he used to be, but he's probably got to. And he's got a lot on his mind. A lot of things to worry about." He shrugged. "If it ends up being secret, it'll be for a good reason."

"Yeah, I know. I know." Skye couldn't really get the passive acceptance of secrets in the agency. Okay, that really wasn't what it was. And for all she knew, Fitz and Simmons hadn't been like that at the start, but they'd been part of S.H.I.E.L.D. for years, and had time to get used to it all. And...

Well, they were different people. Still, Skye had trouble really understanding how they could just be so...cool with it. But Fitz was right. If Coulson was keeping something secret, it was probably for a good reason. If it involved you, if you needed to know, Coulson would tell you, just like he had with what he'd found out about that redacted file, tracing everything back to that village in Hunan province. Like he'd told her about the alien DNA in the drug that had saved her life.

"Anyway," Skye said, smiling. "Enough serious talk. I want to know how you pulled that prank on Hunter." The new arrivals didn't spend much time on the base since they'd gotten here, but just a few days ago, Fitz had pulled a _really_ clever prank on Lance Hunter, and Skye had been trying to figure out how he'd done it. Still didn't have a clue, so it was time to get the information from the horse's mouth.

 **The Lab, the Playground**

 **August 5th, 2014**

Fitz looked up from his tablet when Simmons walked into the lab. After years of working together, Fitz just _knew_ when Simmons was in the room, and she was now. When he saw her, he couldn't help but frown. She had that expression.

The 'I'm thinking about something very puzzling and I'm not entirely happy with the anwers that I'm getting' expression.

She'd been gone in Coulson's office a while – a lot longer than he'd expected she'd be, to be honest, and his best guess was that whatever it had been she'd been talking to the Director about, it was the reason she was bothered.

"You missed lunch." Fitz said, standing up and setting his tablet on the table. "I can go and fetch you something, if you want-"

Simmons shook her head, making her way over to her worktable. "No – I... I'm not very hungry right now. I'll eat something later." Her tone was as distracted by her expression. Now Fitz was worried – just what was it that had her this bothered?

"Jemma, you remember what we agreed back at the Academy, right?" Usually she was the one reminding him to eat, even making him food, but once in a while he had to remind her to stay on top of eating. With sleep, it was usually the other way around. Left to her own devices, Jemma could stay up all night and then some with a particularly engrossing project. And while she was rather cute when she was exhausted, in some ways, it wasn't good for her.

 _Speaking of food Jemma makes..._ for no reason in particular, Fitz thought back to South Ossetia, the mission with the Overkill device, and the 'World's Most Dangerous Sandwich' that he'd never gotten to eat, thanks to Ward. He'd really been looking forward to it too. _Okay, fine, he had a point, but still! He could have just had me put it away or something!_

Not that the engineer really still held it against the specialist that he'd tossed the sandwich away. Not anymore. He'd let it go pretty quickly. It was just a sandwich. Ward, for all his gruffness, was his friend.

"I remember, I remember." Jemma protested, turning around. "We agreed that we'd make sure we both took breaks from our work to eat and sleep, and I will eat. I'm just not hungry right now. I... I have a lot to think about."

"Clearly. You were in Coulson's office for hours." Once he knew what was bothering her, he could help her work through it. That's what they did – they worked through problems together.

"I wasn't in Coulson's office the whole time. I was-" Simmons frowned. "No... sorry." She looked at him apologetically, reaching up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "I'm not really supposed to talk about it with anyone."

 _I guess Skye was right on the nose._ This wasn't the _first_ time that Simmons had had to keep information classified. In their early days after the Academy, though they spent most of their time working together, one of them might be called onto a project in their fields that was classified, couldn't talk about it. Those stopped happening after a year, thankfully, when someone higher up in R &D realized that they worked better together.

 _And thank god they did realize that_. It was a strange thing, going back to that, when one of them was working on something they couldn't talk about it.

Fitz found that, despite what he'd said to Skye not a few hours ago, he was just a little bit bothered by it. _Director_ _Coulson's got to have a good reason._

"All right." Fitz nodded, smiling a little. Yes, it bothered him just a bit, but more because it meant that whatever was bothering her, he couldn't help her with it. But classified was a thing. "You still need to eat though." He set down his tablet, "I'll go get you something."

 **Outside Vault D, The Playground  
August 5th, 2014**

Ward closed the door behind him as he walked out of the Vault. Simmons had gone up first but Ward had stayed behind for a few minutes, to collect himself just a touch. Teaching Simmons how to lie, how to do deep cover in Hydra, had reminded him of John's lessons. But more in the difference, the distinction. John had firmly believed in the power of negative reinforcement. And effective as it might have been...

 _How could I have not realized what that meant about John, about what he thought, how little he really cared?_ It was only with Skye's help that he'd been able to take that new look at everything he'd been through with John.

But it had only taken him a few minutes to push those thoughts away and get back completely to the now.

"Better hope Fitz or Skye didn't catch you to spending hours alone down there." Ward turned at the sound of the male, English-accented voice. He didn't need to see Lancer Hunter there, arms crossed in front of him, an arrogant smirk on his face, to know that it was him.

"If you're going to say something, just say it." Ward said, walking down the hall towards the training room."

Hunter followed, "I'm just saying, mate, that there's a lot of things two attractive people can get up to in a dark little room like that one, alone for hours. A suspicious man might get, well... suspicious. Or a suspicious woman."

Ward spun, grabbing Hunter by the front of his shirt and shoving him against the wall, hard. "You don't know me or you wouldn't even _think_ to suggest what you're suggesting." The idea that he would _cheat_ on Skye? It was completely unthinkable. Disgusting. This idiot had no idea what he was saying.

Hunter grimaced and pushed back at Ward, but the specialist didn't let up, and the mercenary held up his hands, palms outward. "All right, all right. You've made your point." Ward let go of Hunter, letting the man slide down the wall a little.

Ignoring the man, Ward resumed his course to the training room.

 **Skye's Bedroom, The Playground  
August 5th, 2014**

Skye snuggled into Grant a little, resting her head on his chest as they lay together in bed, just enjoying having him there. He was running his fingers through her hair idly and slowly, something she was also quite used to. She hadn't really had anyone do that as a thing before, but Grant really liked doing it, and she'd found that she really liked Grant doing it to.

Skye let out a soft, low breath, sighing a little as she thought back to Simmons being called up to Coulson's office – and how she apparently wasn't supposed to talk about it. Skye couldn't stop thinking about it, about the way that Coulson was having the team keep secrets from eachother. She didn't like it.

 _So you say, while keeping a secret about Grant,_ the little voice in the back of her head suggested. Skye told that voice to shut up though. The situation was completely different. Grant wasn't Hydra anymore. His past, working for Garrett... it wasn't that it didn't _matter_ , but it didn't apply to the now. No one was at risk because of it. No one was involved in it. She'd already used some of the information Grant had given her to help, passing it off as information she'd parsed out of the dumped S.H.I.E.L.D. files, or information that they'd gotten from Cybertek's computers, things like that. With Garrett dead and his group dismantled, Grant didn't even know all that much, and what he had, he'd told her.

With Coulson playing the secret card... it involved them. It was relevant, right now. And it could put them at risk, right?

 _Maybe. But keeping secrets isn't always a bad thing... it can protect people too._ Hell, she was keeping Grant's past a secret to protect him. But wasn't it something that the rest of the team should know? That one of their own was lying to them for months, spying on them, reporting to Garrett?

 _But I can't tell them._ Coulson would... at the very least he'd shove Grant into a cell. Or worse. And she didn't even want to imagine what May would do. And she couldn't let that happen. Grant deserved this second chance he had.

"You're thinking deep thoughts about something." Grant observed softly.

Skye lifted her head a little, looking at Grant. "Just... thinking about secrets. How Coulson's been keeping secrets and that bothers me, but here we are keeping a pretty big secret, so can I really judge him?" She frowned. "I mean, I _get_ why he's keeping secrets, but it bothers me – Simmons was in Coulson's office for like, hours. I just... I can't help but wonder what they were talking about." A thought occurred to her. "You know, I couldn't find you while Simmons was up there."

"I was with Simmons," Grant confirmed. He let out a breath. "I'm not supposed to talk about it. But I will tell you, if-"

Skye held up a hand. "No. Don't. Coulson has his reasons. I _do_ trust him. I can accept that he's got good reasons." She smirked, "But if I ever stop thinking that, I expect you to spill all the secrets of his you know." She kissed him lightly, then rested her head on his chest again. "Let's talk about something else, something lighter."


	3. Carl Creel

**Disclaimer:** No, I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I think the MSF kind of proved that rather conclusively.

Thanks to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for beta-reading this chapter

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 3: Carl Creel

 **Warehouse, Alexandria, Virginia**

 **September 23rd, 2014**

"We've got ears on them, the package is in the open." Skye was doing her best to stay professional, and she was succeeding but, on the inside, a little part of her was all but squealing with excitement at it all, dropping down on the rope, everything so _awesomely_ cloak-and-dagger.

"Wait until they make the deal, then engage." Grant responded over the radio. "No premature moves." Out in the field, Grant was all business, the ultimate robot-specialist that she'd initially thought was all there was to him when they'd first met. She knew better now, knew just what he was like, who he really was, but in the field, he always stayed the perfect operative. Compartmentalized.

There were reasons why Skye didn't think she was ever going to be a full on specialist. A lot of them. She just... she didn't see herself having such an easy to flip on-off switch. But she didn't need to have it to do her job.

Like this one. A former S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent had put the word out on the black market, selling some kind of high-level intel, something valuable that Coulson figured it would be a bad idea for Hydra to get their hands on. If it hadn't been for Agent Hartley and her contacts in the criminal world, they might not have even heard about this sale, so they were running point as would-be buyers.

"I know, Grant." He'd drilled the plan into her enough times on the way here. Still, the fact that he was having her take this position in the plan was proof he trusted her abilities and her willingness to work with the plan. And she'd earned this position too, for that matter. _Of course,_ _it_ _helps that he's such a good S.O._

Over the radio, she heard Grant and Trip talking:

"Trip, do we have a visual?"

"Now we do." The other specialist replied. Skye focused her attention on the sale happening in front of her.

"That's what I'm selling." The former agent dropped a file folder of some kind on the crate that rested between Hartley, Hunter and Idaho, and himself and his bodyguards – Grant had said they had the look of 'generic muscle', and she had to agree with him there. "I'm sure you'd like to see some credentials." The agent handed over a S.H.I.E.L.D. I.D. badge, and Hartley read the name off.

"Agent Browning, for ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. you seem awfully indifferent to who _we_ are." Hartley observed, probably trying to get a feel for just how far this Browning had fallen. It was hard for Skye to muster up any sympathy for the man or the fact that he was likely to end up shuttled off to the Fridge – which still remained under Agent Hand's control – when this was done. She could respect not joining up with the new S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson was forming. She could even get joining a still existing government agency, like the FBI, even selling out to the private sector. But diving right into the criminal underworld and selling S.H.I.E.L.D. intel, without a care who got it? That was a bridge too far.

"What you are is the highest bidder." Browning replied flatly. "Whether you're in it for profit or the highest bidder doesn't concern me. Not anymore."

"That's what we want to hear." Hartley replied with a smirk.

Idaho set a briefcase on the crate, and opened it showing the money within, but before Browning could get more than a glimpse, Hunter closed it up and leaned in, getting in Browning's face.

"The mystery I'd like to solve is why should we be paying you so much? This looks like a box. Sorry, a _picture_ of a box." Hunter clarified. He stepped back, hand on the case. "A picture of a box you don't have."

"The government has it," Browning replied coolly, "along with thousands of other assets they seized from S.H.I.E.L.D. and they don't know what to make of half of them." He closed the folder. "I worked in a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility that had hundreds of boxes just like this. But this was the only one that had a level ten classified file dedicated to it." Skye heard Trip inhale sharply over the radio, and she was sharing the sentiment. From what Coulson and Grant had told her, almost everything was level 9 or lower. Level ten meant only one thing. Director Fury's eyes only. The really heavy stuff, the craziest of the crazy that S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with.

The joke/rumor in S.H.I.E.L.D. had apparently been that level ten was so classified that even Fury didn't even know what half of it was, that there were a whole series of metaphorical 'break glass in case of emergency' protocols and rules in place for some of the level ten files. That those protocols were – at least technically – the only way for someone to find out about those super-secret files.

Of course, no one knew the truth of that one way or the other.

"You're selling us a needle in a haystack." Hartley pointed out, her tone skeptical. Skye wondered if she and Hunter were playing it too strong – were they going to ruin the deal?

"Finding the haystack is up to you." Browning retorted. "I know your reputation, I'm sure you'll be fine. What I don't _appreciate_ is you changing the terms on me now."

Skye tensed. She didn't like the new note in Browning's voice. She readied herself to move the second things went south, if they did.

"We're asking for clarification Browning." Hartley replied. She gestured past him to his muscle. "You're the one who changed the terms by bringing more than the two guards we agreed upon."

 _Wait, he was only supposed to have two guards? And no one told me this?_ This was _not_ going to end well, she could just feel it.

"I only brought two guards." Browning's evident confusion didn't have long to simmer, as the third man suddenly rushed at the table, knocking Browning's muscle out of the way, grabbing the former agent's neck and snapping it with a single, powerful motion. Hartley and her team opened fire but the bullets just seemed to bounce off of him.

 _Shit._ There was nothing else for it. Someone else was involved – _the real Hydra?_

It didn't matter who it was but, before she could get down to back them up – before Grant or Trip could get down there – the attacker had already grabbed the file and was on the move, running and then out the window, jumping straight through it as if the glass was of no concern to him. Skye had her gun out, but before she could use it to take out the other bodyguard, Grant had taken him out, one bullet right in the back of the head as he tried to stand, the man dropping to the ground as life left his body.

"What the hell are you three doing here?" Hartley demanded, walking towards them as she lowered her gun.

"Who was that?" Idaho demanded, gesturing wildly at the broken window.

"Another interested party, I'd say." Grant answered, lowering his gun.

"That's what you call a party?" Idaho rolled his eyes.

Trip was already by the window and Skye was following him. "He's gone." The specialist observed. "Twenty five foot drop."

"This was an undercover op. Want to explain why you were _shadowing_ us?" Hartley was looking to Grant but Skye gave the answer:

"We were your backup... which you needed." Skye looked to the dead bodies, nodding at them to get her point across.

Hunter, who hadn't said anything yet, nudged Browning's body with his foot. "Yeah, so did he." There was nothing to say to that. Hunter was right, but it was more of his flippant irrelevance. Funny in small doses, but it started to grate on her after a while. She watched Hartley call Coulson, filling him in on the new development – with the target dead and the intel lost, the question was what to do now?

Hartley lowered the phone after she got her answer. "Go Dark." She told them. Skye grimaced. It made sense – people could be nearby, watching them. Going back to the Playground now... it wasn't the best idea. But going dark was a risky proposition itself, from her own limited experience and everything else Grant had told her.

 **Hanger, The Playground**

 **September 24th, 2014**

"Our black market contacts were the only reason he didn't think we were S.H.I.E.L.D." Idaho pointed out, still harping on the fact that Grant, Skye and Trip had been shadowing him during the op.

"Coulson knows Hartley." Skye pointed out for the millionth time. "She's the only one on your team who he trusts."

"But why'd you break silhouette protocol?" Hartley asked. _Finally, a question we haven't been asked yet._ But the answer was simple, and Skye gave it, inadvertently speaking in unison with Grant _and_ Trip.

"He ordered us to." When she realized the three of them had spoken in unison, Skye chuckled for just a moment, Grant smiling in amusement and Trip just laughing for a moment.

"We can't maintain a solid cover when agents are tailing us!" Hunter complained, following behind them as they walked towards the Hanger exit.

"And we couldn't be sure you wouldn't run off with the money, Hunter. You're a mercenary – at least Idaho was S.H.I.E.L.D." Skye trusted Hunter to not switch sides in the middle of a fight, sure – he didn't seem quite that sort of mercenary – but he was still in this for the money, nothing more, nothing less.

"And we still have no idea how that freak show found us." Idaho shook his head. "Because right now we're at square freaking one with regards to who or whatever he is and who he's working for."

Grant shook his head. "I think we can assume that he's Hydra. Browning put the word out into the criminal underworld – he probably found out the same way Hartley's contacts did."

"Browning wanted to reach as many potential buyers as possible." Hartley agreed. "When you do that, you alert just as many potential thieves. He said we were the highest bidder, which means he had other bidders – put the word out wide."

"And he paid for that mistake." May said, approaching them as they walked out of the hanger. "Ward, Coulson wants you for debrief."

"I figured." Grant nodded. "Have Koenig throw him up on the big screen when we get to the lounge -"

"He's in his office." May interrupted.

"That's a chance of pace." Hunter observed, and Skye had to agree. Though he'd been popping in and out of the base ever since they'd moved in, he'd been gone even more often in the last month and change - starting around the same time Simmons had gone off to visit her family, having decided she needed some time away from S.H.I.E.L.D., to get away from everything, to figure out...

Skye wasn't sure if she really believed that. Grant hadn't told her what it was that he'd been working with Simmons on, but they'd spent a lot of time in Vault D in the week before she'd left. If Grant were Miles, she might have been suspicious, but... well, Grant wasn't like Miles, and that wasn't like Simmons either. _She and Fitz just have to freaking get their heads out of their ass_ _e_ _s and realize they both love eachother..._

Maybe Simmons really had left for the reasons she'd said, but Skye wasn't sure. She hadn't voiced her theory to Fitz just in case she was wrong. And she wasn't going to press Grant, as much as she wanted to know – and knew that Grant would tell her if she asked...

"Just Agent Ward." May said, raising a hand. Hunter rolled his eyes.

"Well, tell him I'd like to voice my opinion too!" Grant ignored the Englishman and looked over to Skye. Skye ignored the rest of what he said too.

"Training room, one hour." Grant told her, his tone professional but his expression softer – they weren't on mission now. He gave her a soft smile for a moment, silently congratulating her again for her work on the mission.

"One hour." Skye agreed, taking his hand for a moment, then letting her arm drop before Grant followed May to Coulson's office.

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 24th, 2014**

Ward didn't have a watch or he'd have checked it as he waited for May to finish up with Coulson. Their conversation, whatever it was about, was clearly over when May walked out of the room, a slightly grimmer than usual expression on her face.

"That good?" May didn't respond, she just turned and walked down the hall. Ward walked into the office, the printed photos from the surveillance cameras in hand. Those few glimpses of the file were all they had to go on. All they knew about whatever it was that Browning had been selling intel on.

"Nice to see you back at base sir." Ward said, setting the photographs on the Director's desk. "Did your flight get delayed?" For whatever reason, on some of his recruiting trips, Coulson insisted on continuing to fly on a regular airline, rather than the bus or the quinjet – both had working cloaking devices now. There was no reason not to use them, as far as he could figure.

"Not this time. I just got caught up in London. But not being delayed was about the only good thing about the flight. I hate flying coach." Coulson picked up the photos. "What are these?"

"All we have on the intel that Browning was selling. It wasn't tech, just a level ten file. We didn't get the file." Coulson looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"Hydra?"

"Probably. And possibly gifted... and I think I might know who." It was a risk, telling this much to Coulson, but he'd figured out a way to tell Coulson the essentials about Carl Creel without the full truth coming out. "You don't have to fly coach, so why do you?"

Coulson dropped the pictures on the desk. "Cloak or not, the Bus and the quinjet are both unwieldy, to a degree. They leave a footprint. There's something to be said for hiding in the mass movement of people that is air travel, for some work at least." He shook his head, "Anyway. You have a theory on our bulletproof man?"

"I do. We picked up some metal shavings from the site. We thought they might have been pieces of some kind of new Hydra tech... but on the way here, they... turned into flesh." And hadn't _that_ been an unsettling transition to see. Even after everything he'd seen working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, it had been... off, seeing the metal turn into a chunk of flesh like that.

"Flesh?" Coulson's face looked a lot like Trip's, or Hunters had been when they watched it happen – a mixture of disgust and 'what the hell are we seeing'.

"Flesh. I could be wrong, but I think... well, Carl Creel might not be as dead as he's supposed to be."

"Creel?" Coulson's brow furrowed. "Name sounds familiar."

"A gifted that Garrett was sent to evaluate. He told me the story – more than once. You know how he liked to do that. Creel was a boxer, could change the makeup of his body based on what he touched – he liked to turn his fists to steel under his gloves. Garrett _said_ that Creel was crossed off but..."

"Anything Garrett did is suspect." Coulson finished. "He falsified reports about Cybertek, he could do the same about powered people. One more thing to follow up on. Known Hydra agents were all over the place and there's so many we still don't know what side they were on." Coulson nodded. "It's something to follow up on." He looked down on the pictures, then frowned again. Ward looked at the one he was staring at.

"Sir?"

"S.S.R. I just read about this. In Fury's files." _Would make sense. Level 10 file..._ Coulson punched a button on his phone. "Koenig, cancel my flight."

"What did Fury's files say about it? I mean, obviously it's an 0-8-4, says it right on the box..." What had Coulson so spooked?

"It's not just 'an' 0-8-4." Coulson replied. "It's _the_ 0-8-4. The first one. The place the designation comes from. Fury didn't know much about it, but he knew a lot about the trail of death that followed it. If Hydra gets their hands on it... We need to know where Creel is. We need this file. And more importantly, we need Hydra to not have it."

 _I have an idea on that..._ More than an idea. He couldn't tell Coulson. Not without... not without everything coming to light. But Skye knew – he'd told her about the white noise when he'd told her so many other things he knew about Hydra. She'd know how to get that information to Coulson, something she could pick up on or something.

"Skye's taking the flesh down to the lab... maybe we'll get lucky."

"Maybe." Coulson frowned. "Anything else?"

"Hunter's complaining, but that's nothing new. Hartley isn't happy we went in as her backup, especially without telling her." And why on earth hadn't they been allowed to tell her? That was just... pointless. It put her and her team and the whole mission at risk for no reason.

"I suspected as much might happen." Coulson nodded. "All right. Dismissed."

 **Skye's Bedroom, The Playground**

 **September 24th, 2014**

"Creel liked hurting people? Sounds like Garrett must've loved him." Skye said softly. Ward nodded.

"He did. Thought Creel was a real 'character'." They were having this conversation here because it was one of the few places safe for them to do so. He'd had Skye go a few rounds on the training mat but he couldn't talk about the things he knew, the Hydra intel, in there. And so here they were now. "I told you about him – I don't know who he reports to now, though. There's more than a few Heads operating in the United States and he could be working for any of them or one I don't know about."

"Grant, you've told me a _lot_ about what Garrett got up to. And its all on my encrypted Hard Drive. I go through it when I have time, but it's a lot of to stuff to sort through." Skye pointed out. "So... is there anything else about Creel to know, then?"

Ward shook his head. "Not really. That's everything, what I can share with everyone else, and what else I know. But there _might_ be a way to figure out where he is, what he's going to do next. The white noise."

Skye blinked. "Does that mean something different for Hydra than it normally does?"

Ward reminded her: "The white noise between S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quantum Key Distribution Channels. The way that Hydra kept in contact with assets outside of S.H.I.E.L.D. If you don't know to look for the messages in the noise, they're completely undetectable. S.H.I.E.L.D. might be gone, but those frequencies are still there... and so is that white noise." He let out a breath. "I think it's time to bring this intel to Coulson's attention somehow, if we can. If this 0-8-4 is as bad as he seems to think it is..."

"Grant... you've never told me about this before." Skye said, shaking her head, voice soft.

 _Of course I did._ "Yeah – like you said, I told you a lot of things. I told you everything." He hadn't kept anything back. He'd had no motive to. Skye deserved the truth, every truth. And that intel he'd given her could help bring down Hydra, which was his enemy, because Skye was here, with S.H.I.E.L.D., fighting them. Hydra was a threat to Fitz and Simmons, people he had also come to value. He didn't care about S.H.I.E.L.D. as a whole, but he did care about Skye and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the team. And Hydra was a threat to them. So Hydra was the enemy.

"No, Grant, you didn't. And you probably haven't told me everything." She held up a hand, and he bit back his response, "I don't think you're keeping anything back on purpose, Grant, but you were part of Hydra for ten years. Every day. There's _no_ way you can tell me everything about that time. But if you had told me about this before... it's a little time-sensitive. If Hydra is still using those frequencies, then we could have picked up on all kinds of transmissions. I would have found a way bring it to his attention before now." Skye reached over to his hand and took it in hers, running her thumb across his palm.

Ward let out a breath. What she said made sense. There could be things he hadn't thought to tell her... things he'd... internalized, gotten used to? Possibly, anyway... if he really hadn't told her...

"All right."

Skye put her shoulder on his, scooting in closer to him. He put his free arm around her back. "I'm sure there're other things you'll remember – find something out that jogs a memory, or...something like that..." She closed her eyes. "I'll have to figure out how to get the info to Coulson... probably something similar to what I've done before." She squeezed his hand, then let go of it. Skye took her head off of his shoulder and then wrapped her arms around him.

Ward hadn't been expecting a hug but he responded to it almost instinctively, putting his own arms around her and tucking her head under his chin, letting her rest against his chest. Skye almost burrowed into him.

"I hate thinking about your time in Hydra." Skye said softly, her voice barely above a murmur. "Because that's not you. Not you now, never the real you. You're a good man – you've proved that. You're doing the right things now."

 _I'm doing the things that help keep you safe._ Ward still... he still didn't really get it. What made the things he'd done for S.H.I.E.L.D. 'right' and the things he'd done for Hydra 'wrong?" He knew for some things, but it wasn't always that simple...

At the end of the day, Skye was his metric for right and wrong. She was good. Not just good in a simplistic sense. She was _good_. What she viewed as right... as a rule... it was probably right. The same for what she saw as wrong. He was still prepared to do the wrong thing to keep her safe, always would be. But he was trying to learn from Skye's metrics...

"I'm not a good man, Skye." Ward told her just as quietly. "That's not going to change. I've done too much, before and after joining Hydra for that to change."

"Your past doesn't define you, Grant. You're doing the right things now. You're a good man – you're trying to be a better person than you were." She pulled away from him, but only far enough to kiss him. "And I'll keep telling you that until you believe it." Skye told him once she'd pulled away from his lips.


	4. The Break-In

**Disclaimer:** No. I don't own it. Of course, at this point, even if I did own AoS I wouldn't admit it or you'd all come and lynch me. :p

Thanks to my beta-reader Riley Holden/Colormeblue for their help. ^^

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 4: The Break-In

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 24th, 2014**

It hadn't taken her long to figure out how she could get this information to Coulson without risking Grant. According to DC, one of her most useful talents - and she agreed with him there – was her ability to think outside the box. Look at things from an outsider's perspective. She was an agent now, but she hadn't gone to the Academy. Hadn't come to S.H.I.E.L.D. by the usual route.

Her laptop open on one hand and arm, Skye knocked lightly on the door to Director Coulson's office.

"Come in." Coulson said after a moment, and Skye opened the door, putting both hands on her laptop again and walked inside. Coulson looked up from the file he was reading. "Skye. Got something?"

"I think so. A theory, anyway. One of the things I've been working on – thinking about, mostly – was how Hydra could get in contact with its members over long distance without risking getting caught. I mean, they can't just say 'Hail Hydra' over the phone, right?"

"I'm sure they did that too, but I see your point." Coulson gestured for her to continue, so Skye did. "I was taking to Grant, just a couple days ago, and he mentioned those Quantum Key Distribution Frequencies S.H.I.E.L.D. used to talk between its bases. No one can crack those, listen in from the outside – not even me. But they weren't secure in-house. Anyone with clearance could get on them, so Hydra wouldn't use them, but it just hit me a couple days ago. There's a lot of noise between the frequencies." Skye put her laptop down on Coulson's desk, typing something in quickly, bringing up info on those frequencies and the white noise between them. Then she turned it so the Director could see her screen.

"Enough noise to hide messages in, if you're careful. I can think of half-a dozen ways to hide communications in this and make it look like just more white noise." Skye finished.

"But S.H.I.E.L.D.'s gone now." Coulson pointed out.

"But not those frequencies." Skye explained a little excitedly, as if she was showing off her achievement. Taking credit for the info Grant gave her wasn't exactly sitting with her perfectly, but it did need to be done, so... what the hell? "They're still there, and so is the white noise. It's a long shot, but maybe they're still using them. World governments still can't hack into those frequencies. Does the Playground have its own receiver?"

Coulson nodded. "It does." He pressed a few buttons on the phone on his desk. "Eric, I want you to activate the bases Quantum Key Distribution receiver. Start scanning the white noise for anything out of the ordinary." He looked back at her as he got off the phone.

"If this does pan out, then maybe we'll be able to listen in on Hydra's phone calls." Coulson observed. "Nice thinking."

"It'll be nice thinking if it actually turns out that I'm right." Skye told him. "I could be completely off base."

Coulson shook his head. "I don't think so. You've been having a lot of good hunches about this sort of thing the last few months. You've got good instincts for this." Skye suppressed a sigh of relief as he added the bit about instincts. The last thing she needed was DC starting to get suspicious about how she was able to be so consistently right. Usually she could pass it off as something she'd picked up from the web – some rumor of a rumor, or maybe from all the files they'd stolen from Cybertek, or something. But even discounting those, Skye was having a lot of guesses and hunches go right.

 _Maybe I should get something wrong soon, just to break the track record._ She wasn't sure what. Maybe she could just... make something up. _I dunno. We'll see_. `

"I'm good at outside the box. It's why you brought me on the first place, way back when."

"True." Coulson agreed. "Turned out to be an even better decision than I thought it would be." He smiled. "I probably don't say it enough lately, what with how busy I've been, but you're doing great. You're progressing as a field agent even faster than I expected."

Skye smiled, basking in the compliment for a few moments, then replied: "Well, I have a great teacher."

"Ward's been a good SO for you, true, but he could be the world's worst SO and you could still be as good as you are now. You wanted this, so you earned it." He let out a sigh. "But I've got to get back to work. I'll let you know if-"

Eric Koenig's voice came out of the phone on Coulson's desk. "Director Coulson, we've – we've got something coming through in the white noise. It looks like it might be a message. Cleaning it up with one of Agent's Skye's programs now."

"Put it on the screen in my office." Coulson replied, and Skye turned to look at the screen. The message wasn't long. A white screen, then the words 'New Directive Incoming' with the skull and tentacle Hydra logo right beneath.

"Why does it have only one head again?" Skye muttered. She made a note to ask Grant if he had any idea why Hydra had such a ridiculous logo that didn't even fit its name. It was a freaking octopus!

The words and the logo vanished and were replaced with an image of a familiar looking man, wearing military dress blues. General Talbott, the jackass who had tried to imprison them at Providence Base.

"What does Hydra want with him?" Not that Skye wanted him dead or whatever. He hadn't been that much of an ass to merit that.

"Kill or capture, almost certainly." Coulson replied. "Find Agents Hartley and May. Tell them I want them up here." Coulson sighed. "We have a general to save." Skye nodded, seeing more information appear next to the man's picture on the screen. Including the word 'extraction'. Capture it was, then.

 **Departure Room, the Playground**

 **September 24th, 2014**

Tricking Talbott into giving them his prints had been far easier than it should have been. But then, fingerprint scanners that could fit into the bottom of a chair's armrests was not exactly common tech, Ward was pretty sure. Getting his authentication had been even easier, and just about as simple as Ward expected.

The uniform he was wearing was a change of pace. It wasn't the first time he'd worn US military garb, but he didn't do it often. The government had a habit of getting touchy if S.H.I.E.L.D. impersonated it's personnel.

"Once you're in the base, I'll fly the cloaked quinjet in and land as close as I can." May explained. "Once you have the package, get out there as soon as you can and I'll decloak long enough for you to get on board."

"There's not a lot of room for delay here." Ward told them, grabbing a pistol and slipping it into a holster. "We don't know what Creel might try to pull there, and we don't know if he'll have any backup. But the priority is getting that 0-8-4 – whatever it is – away from that base so Hydra can't get it." He looked over to Skye. "Did you track the location?"

"Got it." Skye nodded, closing her laptop. "It's a small facility near the Pentagon. From the outside, you'd never think they were hiding our tech there. We're ready to go."

"We have a small logic question." Hunter drawled, walking towards them. He crossed his arms over his chest as he asked it: "Why?"

 _Why what? Why are we going for the package? Why are we taking a jet out? You've got to be more specific than that, Hunter._

"Why are we going in?" The mercenary clarified. Before Ward could answer with the 'orders', explanation, Hartley cut in.

"Look, we trust Coulson's judgment." The other specialist clarified, ignoring Hunter's interjection of 'We do?' "But Talbott's not a bad guy. And last I checked, the US government is one of the lesser evils." _Not when they have a man like my brother in an influential spot._ Senator Christian Ward had recently been promoted to Chair of the Armed Services Committee – and that was in addition to influential spots on the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Oversight Committees. Simple survival instincts had forced Ward to keep tabs on his monster of an older brother the last ten years, ever since he'd returned to civilization, and every time Christian made a political advancement, Ward was...

Well, troubled would be an understatement. Ward knew what he himself was – what he had been during his time in Hydra. But Christian was a thousand times worse than anything he could have ever been.

"So what if they've got this weapon in a locked box? And now they've ... absorbing man in a locked box too? It's not so bad." Hartley finished with a shrug.

"She's got a point." Mack said from the far end of the room. "Does seem a safe a place to keep him as any."

"But they have no idea what they're dealing with." Skye pointed out.

"They have worse than no idea." Ward clarified. "They think they've caught him, locked up and problem solved. With his powers, that won't stop a guy like Creel. And as long as he and that weapon are on the same base, there's too much of a risk that Hydra will get it."

"Is that risk big enough to send every field agent we've got on hand into a secure military compound?" Hartley countered, and it wasn't like she didn't have a point. If this went sideways, S.H.I.E.L.D. would lose a huge chunk of its mobile manpower.

"Guarded by the same people who have been hunting us for months." Mack supplied.

"Belly of the beast." Idaho agreed.

"That weapon is dangerous enough to risk it." Coulson said, walking into the room. "It was confiscated from Hydra at the end of World War Two in the first place, and it left a trail of bodies behind it. I'm not letting modern Hydra pick up where they left off." Ward watched him stand by May. "This is a make or break moment. Either we stop Hydra from getting this, or they might just have everything they need to pick up where the left off when S.H.I.E.L.D. fell."

Frankly, Ward thought Coulson was exaggerating. Yes, this weapon was dangerous, that much he could guess. But it was just one weapon. Still, the orders were to get it, and this plan might just work.

"All right then. This or nothing." Hartley agreed. "We've got almost everything. Where's our trojan horse?"

"Should be here any moment." Ward confirmed. Indeed, he watched Skye's gaze move to see another new arrival right behind Coulson.

"General." The hacker commented with a smile, and Ward spared a small smirk at Trip's reply:

"Girl you know I make this look good." Ward turned and nodded at Trip.

"Ready?"

"Ready to break into an Air Force Base and steal advanced tech before a guy who can turn himself into metal to go bulletproof?" Trip chuckled.

"When you put it like that..." Ward nodded. "Point taken. Let's go. Coulson will be on Comms."

 **Air Force Containment Facility, D.C.**

 **September 24th, 2014**

To be honest, Skye was a little surprised they'd been able to bluff their way onto the base so well. Sure, the plan had been solid and she'd known she could pull of her part of it, but _still._ Breaking into a US military base shouldn't be so easy, especially when it held advanced tech and prisoners like Creel.

 _Okay, I suppose easy isn't the right word for it. We did have to kidnap a general and get his fingerprints to pull this off. And put together a voice synthesizer that could turn what DC said into Talbott's words perfectly._

But now they were inside the warehouse, and only had to find a needle in a haystack. _Just how much stuff are they keeping locked in here? Are they even going to try to figure out how this stuff works?_ Skye wondered just how much alien and advanced technology was going to sit here, unused, unexamined. Fitz would probably have a fit if he realized they were just letting all this stuff – some of which he probably helped design – go to waste.

"Keep the truck running in case we have to run and May can't land the quinjet." Ward ordered Idaho.

"Got it."

"Needle in a haystack." Hartley vocalized Skye's thoughts as she too looked over the rows and rows of shelves holding boxes, each shelf easily like... three Skyes tall, if not more. "Turns out I was _not_ exaggerating."

 _Wait, I'm a unit of measurement now?_ Skye shook her head. The point still stood.

"Let's get moving." Grant ordered tersely, all business. "Pick a row and look for the 0-8-4." Skye nodded and moved into one of the rows of shelves, checking every box she could, trying her best to stay aware of her surroundings as she did so. There could be guards inside this building too, as well as outside of it.

Skye's eyes lit on a box that looked like theirs – she let out an annoyed sigh when she saw the numbers on it – 138. Not the one they wanted. She kept moving. And moving. Just how many boxes _were_ there in this place.

She was about to turn down another row and check them when she heard Hartley's voice over the comms. "I have the 0-8-4. Repeat, I've got the damn thing. Southwest side." Skye started moving towards the other agent's location immediately.

"Skye and Hunter, meet with Hartley and get the box to the back exit. Trip, Idaho, with me." Grant's voice came over the comms. "We're going to make sure the airfield behind us is clear. May, are you hearing this?"

"I am. I'm on my way. I'll be there in two minutes." May replied. "Be ready."

Skye was closing in on Hartley when she heard the other agent start crying out in pain – no, not just pain, _agony_. Racing around the corner, Skye turned into the row to see the agent kneeling on the ground, almost doubled over, a strange silvery-looking object in her hand, the hand itself looking all... dry and cracked and- _something._

And then there was Creel. Bare-chested, half his torso looked like it was made from the same metal the shelves were. But he was backing away from Hartley as she cried in pain. Skye drew her ICER and fired futiley at the man, running towards them – Creel turned and ran, though she guessed it was more from whatever was happening to the agent than from her ineffectual shots.

"I'm with Hartley. She's got the 0-8-4... it's doing _something_ to her. We've got to get her and it out of here." Even as she reached her, Lance Hunter came out from behind more shelves, firing as uselessly as she had at Creel.

"What the hell is happening?" Hunter crouched by his teammate, trying to get a look at the strange gray stonelike looking stubstance crawling up her hand.

"I can't let go!" Hartley managed to get out between gasps – near sobs really – of agony that were bad enough to set Skye to wincing.

And if things weren't bad enough, the alarm started going. _Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck._ They were _this_ close to everything going FUBAR now.

Even as the alarm blared in her ears, her eyes were drawn to the object in Hartley's hand. It was... she couldn't place it, but it seemed familiar. Even more so when she saw strange... lines and circles start to form on it, looking almost like writing. They jogged something in her memory, as if she'd seen them before, but she couldn't remember when or how.

 _Not the time to worry about this._

Hunter started to reach for the object, but Hartley pushed him back with her empty hand. "Don't touch it, just stay away."

"They'll be on us any second. We have to get to the quinjet." It would be a tight fit to get them all in there, but they could do it. Skye kept a watch for soldiers while Hunter started to help her to her feet. "Now!" Skye said. Hunter was half-carrying Hartley, but they finally started to move, even as soldiers started firing on their position.

"Grant, tell me May's landed with the jet!" Skye barked into the comms.

"She has, but Creel's decided to get between us and it! Idaho is down!" Grant replied, shouting into her ear. "Do you still have it!?"

"It's stuck in Hartley's hand, and I think it's killing her. Yes, we have it!" Skye shouted back. "And we've got soldiers on our tail!" She saw the exit just ahead. The airfield would be right beyond it. She raised her gun and kicked the door open. Trip and Grant were crouched behind a pile of crates firing shots at Creel, who had transformed his torso and head to be _all_ metal now, and was running towards them, an unconscious – or dead – Idaho just past him, lying on the ground. She couldn't tell from here if he was breathing or not.

"Ah!" Hartley cried out, falling and taking Hunter to the ground with her. When her hand holding the weapon hit the ground her...

Her fingers shattered, like a brittle rock, and the weapon went flying into the air. On instinct drilled into her by endless lessons from Grant, Skye reached for it, grabbing the weapon even as Hartley cried out for her not to.

Skye realized she was holding it a split second after her hand closed around it, and she tried to drop it, but before she could, the symbols on the item she'd seen moments before glowed a brilliant orange... and absolutely _nothing_ happened to her arm. Still, before that could really register, Creel was on her – he'd turned one of his hands into the tar of the runway and hit her with it on the shoulder.

Letting out an involuntary cry of pain, Skye fell back and her grip on the silver object of death loosened. With his tarry hand, Creel snatched it from her grip and turned, running away from all of them. Skye struggled up and joined Trip and Grant's firing at him as he ran, but it was no use.

"Abort! Everyone to the quinjet!" Grant shouted. Skye wanted to protest, but really, they didn't have a chance. Skye helped Hunter lift Hartley up, carefully avoiding the gray... whatever that was still creeping up Hartley's arm, though slower, she thought. "May! Uncloak it, now!" Grant ordered. Skye was right behind him with Hunter and Hartley right behind her, the door into the warehouse opening behind them and airmen pouring out. bullet's whizzing by them -

The quinjet appeared right in front of Trip, who got onboard – Grant was about to get on when Skye felt a sudden impact on the back of her shoulder – the same shoulder that had just been punched by Creel.

Another cry of pain and Skye stumbled, tripping and almost landing flat on her face.

"Skye!" Grant turned, raising his gun and shooting at the soldiers as he ran towards her, ignoring Hunter and Hartley as they got into the quinjet.

Gritting her teeth against the pain – it wasn't as bad as two in the stomach, but it still fucking _hurt_ – Skye lifted herself off the ground – but before she could stand, Grant was lifting her bodily and carrying her, bridal style as he ran onto the quinjet. They were in the air even before the back of it closed, and as she'd expected, it was a little cramped to fit them all in there.

Focusing on something other than the pain, Skye looked over everyone, doing a headcount. May was in the pilot's chair, and Trip was moving up to join her in the cockpit. Hunter and Hartley were in one set of chairs and then there was -

"Where's Idaho?" Skye got out. She barely heard her own voice over the roar of the quinjet's engines as they lifted off the ground.

"Dead." Trip had to shout to be heard. "Creel just – just about snapped him in half."

 _Dead_. Someone on the team hadn't actually died before. Idaho wasn't on _the_ team, from the Bus, but he was – he was one of them, an agent...

And now he was dead.

The engines started to quiet a little as they were nearly done climbing, and Skye was able to hear Hartley and Hunter's voices as Grant opened the first-aid kit.

"-if you don't cut it off, I'm not going to make it to the base or any hospital!" Skye focused on the combat knife in Hartley's hand that she was holding out to Hunter as Grant shifted her shirt around so he could get at the bullet wound in her shoulder. She had to bite her lip even harder as he started on it. "It's no big deal." Hartley continued. "You've seen what they can do with robotics these days."

They could do good work, but Skye could tell obvious bravado when she heard it. Hunter obviously could too, but he was playing along: "Probably be an upgrade." Even as the strange gray, brittle growth... thing started to creep over the elbow of her already ruined arm – three of her fingers had shattered – Hunter grabbed the knife and held it over her arm, hesitating – Skye lost track of the conversation for a second as forceps went into her shoulder and pulled the bullet out. And then Hunter was cutting into Hartley's arm just above the creeping greyness.

Hartley's cry of pain was bloodcurdling as the knife came out the other side of her arm and the destroyed appendage landed – and shattered – on the floor of the jet. As it landed, and Hunter quickly moved to stem the tide of blood, Skye felt bile rise in her throat – and then before she could stop herself, she was emptying her stomach on the floor.

Hydra had the weapon, and it was because Creel had taken it from her.

And then there was the larger question – why the hell hadn't it done to her what it had done to Hartley?


	5. Aftermath

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I think by now we know that quite firmly.

Thanks as always are extended to colormeblue/Riley Holden for being a beta-reader. And also for giving me a minor kick in the ass about my AoS fics – she was wondering if I was going to send her anything for one of them to her sometime soon, and well, reminded me just how behind I am on giving you guys this stuff.

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 5: Aftermath

 **Infirmary, The Playground**  
 **September 24th, 2014**

The medical staff at the Playground weren't Simmons, but they still knew their stuff.

 _Actually_ , she suddenly realized, _Simmons isn't actually that kind of doctor... so they probably know their stuff even better than her_. Grant's field treatment of her bullet injury had been fast and a little sloppy, because it had had to be, but it had done it's job. And the people here had done their job. She'd have to be careful with using her arm for a few days, even after she got this little sling-cast taken off tomorrow, but she'd recover. And that was the most important thing.

Skye did wish they hadn't given her pain medication, though not because she actually wanted to be in pain or something. Fuck that, she wasn't a masochist. She just...

Well, being in pain would be something else for her to focus on, rather than dwelling on the fact that she'd had the artifact and it had just... she'd just let Creel take it.

Skye sat on the edge of the medical cot, waiting for the doctor to come back and tell her she could go, trying everything else she could think of to avoid thinking about... that. The way she'd screwed up. Let Hydra have a weapon that could do... whatever the hell it was that it had done to Hartley. She'd just...

Skye leaned her head back, rolling her neck a little. _Where is he?_

Closing her eyes, Skye's mind went back to those marking's she'd seen on the artifact. They'd looked familiar, the strange pattern of lines and circles and... there was something about them that she recognized. She'd gotten an even clearer glimpse of them when they'd glowed orange when she'd held the thing. When it... _hadn't_ done to her what it had done to Hartley. And that...

That thought frightened her. How could she hold it and it not do that to her? Was it something about Hartley, or something about her?

 _I did get alien DNA injected in me_... that was the thing that... like, biogically, made her stand out from other people, right? So...

 _Well – anything that can do that to people... has to be alien..._

That had to be it. Which would mean that Coulson probably could too... not that that was really something anyone should test. The stuff that had gone into that medicine was kind of secret that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been created to contain. The really dangerous stuff. The Fall had proven that the agency had gone too far with the secrets, keeping alien artifacts under wraps and the tracking powered people thing, but... something that could just...

 _What the hell did it even do to Hartley?!_ God, she wished Simmons was still on the base. She'd have some kind of explanation. A theory, or something. She needed to come back. How long did she need away from S.H.I.E.L.D.? Was she even going to come back?

"Given your record, Agent Skye, I figured you would be a far more troublesome patient. But you've been surprisingly well-behaved." The doctor said as he came back to her, a clipboard in hand. "Are you currently feeling any pain in your shoulder?"

"It kind of throbs? I'm not sure I'd say that it hurts though. Not since you injected me with that stuff..." She frowned, "That wasn't like, morphine or something? I'm not going to go all loopy and stuff, right?"

"No. Not Morphine. I wouldn't suggest driving or operating heavy machinery for the next eight hours or so, but it won't make you 'loopy'. But I can't give you that dose too often." He handed her a small plastic bottle of pills, which she accepted with her still mobile arm. "Take no more than one of these every twelve hours. It won't get rid of the pain completely, but it will keep the edge off." The doctor made a few marks on his clipboard. "Come back tomorrow afternoon to get the sling off your arm, but I do mean it – try not to use that arm, and especially the shoulder, as much as possible for the next few days. You don't want to strain the injury." Then, suddenly, the doctor chuckled.

Skye looked at him, "Wanna let me in on the joke, doc?"

"Just thinking about the irony of giving **_you_** that lecture, when compared to Agent Ward, you'll be a model patient even if you tore the sling off as soon as you got back to your quarters. When Dr. Simmons told me that the only way to get him to actually comply with doctor's orders was to threaten him with the biggest needle in the lab, I thought she was joking."

Skye smiled a little. Yeah, that was the best way to get Grant to listen when he was being ordered to tone down the activity for a few days or even just one day after an injury. Though Skye did know there were other ways to get him to do what was best for his health. The carrot to the doctor's stick and all that. A small smirk formed on he face as she thought about some of those ways, but she shook her head, banishing them from her thoughts.

Not the time or the place.

"No, not joking. I promise I'll be a better patient than Grant." She told the doctor, starting to smirk a little.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what I remember from back on the Bus, Skye." Grant said from behind her. He walked around to enter her field of vision, leaning down to press a light kiss on her forehead. "I seem to recall something about a 'Warden' extending house arrest?" Despite herself, Skye flushed just a little at the reminder of her horrible attempt at Simmons' accent.

"Did you hear all of that?" She asked, and Grant nodded, then looked over at the doctor.

"I was wondering where you got the idea to threaten me with the big needles," Grant told him. "I suppose that's something I'll have to talk to Simmons about whenever she gets back. Are you all done?"

The doctor nodded. "No strenuous activity with that for a few days." He told Skye again, then stepped back, letting her get off the cot. Grant took the hand of her free arm and they left the infirmary. She squeezed his hand gently, and he returned the gesture.

 **Infirmary, The Playground**  
 **September 24th, 2014**

"Sorry to say, Sir," Hartley said slowly, sounding like she was on the verge of falling asleep completely, likely thanks to the sheer amount of pain medication and sedatives she'd been given, "But I don't think I'm going to be able to go out into the field for a few days."

"More than that, unfortunately." Coulson agreed. "I've talked to Fitz – he thinks he might be able to design you some kind of replacement if you give him a few months. It won't be perfect, you'll have the use of both hands again, at least. But in the meantime... there's not much point in putting you on Active Duty."

"I can still hold a pistol with one hand, Sir." Hartley protested weakly.

"I've already had Agent Hand calling and berating me for getting you injured like this in the field, Hartley. I don't want to imagine what she'll do to me if I sent you out on a mission when you're like this."

Hartley chuckled briefly, "That's Vic for you."

"She asked that I have you flown out to the Fridge for your recovery. Are you good with that?"

Hartley nodded slowly, "Yeah."

"If the doctors release you tomorrow, I'll have you flown out then. I'll let you rest in a minute, but I do have to ask two more questions: when you held the artifact, do you have any idea what it was doing to you?" They had nothing to go on. No indication as to what it was or what it did, beyond just... whatever it had done to Agent Hartley.

She shook her head, "No... not a clue. As soon as it was in my hand, I... I stopped feeling it. I couldn't let go, couldn't move my fingers... but I don't know what it did."

Coulson nodded, "And Lancer Hunter. Will he obey orders from me if you're not here to keep him in line?" The man was definitely useful to have, someone he'd like to have on the team, but he was also an unknown. He worked with Hartley because he knew and trusted her. But, at the end of the day, he was a mercenary. He was unpredictable and Coulson didn't know if he could be sure the man would respect the chain of command.

"He will... mostly, if I tell him to. He's not S.H.I.E.L.D., so he's not a big fan of the mushroom treatment, but you'll be able to count on him when and where it really matters."

Coulson raised an eyebrow, "Mushroom treatment?"

"Kept in the dark and fed shit." Hartley replied with another weak chuckle. "Sir. He's just not a fan of all the compartmentalization. So he's going to ask questions when he shouldn't."

Coulson nodded, "I'll keep that in mind. Get some rest." Turning, Coulson left the infirmary. With any luck, Koenig's monitoring of the white noise discovered a follow on order for Creel, some idea of where he was supposed to deliver the artifact. If they could intercept it...

Otherwise, the whole mission had been a failure. Creel had escaped from the Air Force's custody, exactly as Coulson had known he would. He'd gotten the artifact from them, and now Hydra was going to get it if they couldn't get it from him before he delivered it.

It was at least moderately likely that Simmons might be able to learn _something_ in Hydra R&D about what the thing did, but that wasn't enough. If it turned out to really be as dangerous as Fury's files suggested... he'd have to have Agent Morse break cover. Something that dangerous? Hydra couldn't be allowed to hold onto it.

In the meantime...

 **Skye's Bedroom, The Playground**

 **September 2** **5** **th** **, 2014**

"That's it! That's where I saw them before!" Ward looked up at Skye's exclamation. She'd been doodling something on a piece of scratch paper.

"Saw what?" Ward asked her, standing up from the chair.

"This." She held up the paper and showed him an elaborate and strangely familiar set of circles and lines, "There was this design on the – the artifact, the 0-8-4. It looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out what it was, where I'd seen it before. This sort of thing – these lines and circles... But I remember now! When you went into that research building in Belarus. I saw it through the camera feed."

Ward thought back to the mission, and then he realized that she was right. He'd seen the design on the chalkboard and he'd gotten the 'mission complete' order as soon as he'd seen it.

They never had figured out what the whole mission had really been about, what the point of the design was. But now they knew that the two things were related.

"We need to tell Coulson." Ward said, "Find the stored footage from your recording of the cameras and show them to him. Whatever the 0-8-4 is, there's a connection."

"And I think I know another connection," Skye said hesitantly, putting the piece of paper down. Ward watched her bit her lip and look down, for a moment, obviously concerned, nervous. "Right before... right before Creel got the 0-8-4, I had it in my hands," she said softly.

Grant blinked, unsure if he'd just heard her right. "You – you _had_ it? You held it... but-" She wasn't all... what had happened to Hartley hadn't happened to her...

"How? Are you-" He looked at her, expecting to see – terrified he _would_ see – some creeping grey... deadness like had happened to Hartley's hand. There was nothing. Nothing like that. Her arms were fine, the rest of her...

"It didn't do anything to me. All it did – those markings glowed like... orange, or something. And... I've been trying to figure out why it didn't do that to me... I only had it before a second, before Creel knocked me over and got it..." He her the self-recrimination in her voice. Grant put a hand on her uninjured shoulder.

"That wasn't your fault. The whole mission went badly. We had no idea what we were getting into with that thing – and once it started doing that to Hartley... the whole mission went south. I was in charge – I should take the blame. For that, and for you getting shot. Again."

Skye reached out her hand and squeezed his, "Hey, it wasn't your fault. If anything, you helped save me: you got the bullet out of me and stemmed the bleeding. I didn't even need any... miracle drug made from alien DNA to save me this time." Grant hadn't even thought about that for a while... Skye had told him about it just over two month ago - about the fact that Coulson had discovered that alien DNA was involved in the creation of GH-325.

He understood why Coulson had kept that detail under wraps and why Skye had kept it from him. He didn't begrudge Skye the secret – how could he, given the fact that he'd kept a far bigger secret for longer from her, from everyone.

But he had been happy that Skye had told him about it. Every time she confided in him, about even the littlest things... well, he liked it. It was a sign, confirming how much she trusted him, what she felt for him...

She hadn't yet said the three words he most wanted to hear from her, over anything else, but... Ward believed it was only a matter of time. After everything they'd been through together, after everything they'd done together, shared together... it was coming.

But he loved her. And he was more than willing to wait to hear it.

Grant squeezed Skye's hand back after a long moment, and she continued:

"And... I think that's why it didn't... why it didn't do that to me... what it did to Hartley, I mean. Either there was something wrong with Hartley, or something... well, _right_ about me. And if that's it... then that means it's all connected – G.H.-325, this... design, the 0-8-4. Whatever it is... these things are all connected." Skye stiffened suddenly, as if a thought was suddenly occurring to her, "Oh god – Hydra's obsessed with this thing... if they find out about... Garrett wanting my blood was enough. I don't..."

Grant put his fingers under her chin and gently lifted head so their eyes met. "I won't let Hydra do anything to you. I promise." He leaned in and gave her a light kiss, fully intending to pull back after a moment, but Skye let go of his hand and brought hers up and around to press on the back of his neck, pulling him in more and deepening the kiss.

It ended almost a minute later, leaving them both breathless for a second, but Ward didn't pull that far away from her. Skye looked at him, opened her mouth, about to say something...

Then she closed her mouth, took a shallow breath and spoke: "We should... we should probably talk to Coulson about this..." She gestured to the sketch she'd drawn: "it's – you know. Time sensitive."

After a moment, Ward nodded. She was right. Who knew how long they had before Creel handed the artifact over to Hydra? This could help, maybe. Only one way to find out.

"Grab my computer," she gestured to the bedside table. "Please?" Ward nodded and took it, then helped Skye off of the bed. Time to talk to Coulson.

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 2** **5** **th** **, 2014**

"I understand why you told Agent Ward that alien DNA was involved in the creation of G.H.-325," Coulson told her. "But I would have appreciated being informed that you'd told him, since I was also given the same drug."

Skye opened her mouth to counter that, then let out a breath and went silent. No, he was right. She should have let Coulson know that she'd told Grant. "You have a point. Sorry."

"Apology accepted." Coulson offered magnanimously, then gestured to her laptop screen, the footage from the glasses frozen on the chalkboard. "But this is... more troubling news, unfortunately. If your theory as to why the 0-8-4 didn't affect you like it did Hartley is correct, then we at least know why Garrett was interested in this design. It was connected to the way I was brought back from the dead. Though how he knew that is an entirely different question."

"But it doesn't help us figure out where Creel is taking it to give to his bosses in Hydra." Skye said softly. "I was hoping somehow it would connect with some piece of intel you had and boom, we'd be able to get it." She made a quick gesture with her good hand as she said 'boom'. She looked over to Grant, who seemed about to say something all S.O.-y, "Yeah, I know, it doesn't really work that way."

"We're monitoring the white noise. If anything comes through to Creel, we'll hear it." Coulson said, sounding confident. "I've got the entire agency listening for any sign of this thing – where it is, what it is, where Creel might be taking it."

"I can take another try at trying to trace the message sent to Creel?" Skye offered, "Figure out where they were when they sent it?"

"I actually have a pretty good idea where it originated." Coulson said. "Unfortunately, if the guess is right, that place is crawling with Hydra's people. We'd be outnumbered dozens to one. Our best bet for stopping them from getting the artifact is to intercept it."

"If they were talking to Creel through those channels, then it's likely they wouldn't have him bring it right to the front door." Grant suggested, "The man is conspicuous. So there's going to be a drop point, where he hands it over and they give him some sort of payment." _That would make sense._ Of course, if, as Grant said, Creel just liked hurting people, then maybe he wasn't getting paid at all.

On the other hand, it wasn't like he had to hurt people _for_ Hydra. So he was probably getting paid.

Before anyone could say anything else, there was knocking on the door to the office. "Sir!" Fitz's voice came through the door. "I think I've got something."

Coulson nodded to Grant and he opened the door, letting the Scottish scientist in.

"I think I've got something to stop Creel." Fitz started without any prompting. "Everyone else down in the lab is trying to come up with a biochemical solution, something to stop him from changing his – his cells, the way he does, but that's not going to work. If Jemma was here, maybe there could be some sort of biochemical solution, but there's no chance of coming up with any solution in time." He brandished a handful of papers at him. "But if we _destabilize_ his epithelial cells, it should neutralize his abilities."

"And you've got a way to do that?"

"I think so – I kept feeling like I'd solved this problem before – And I did." He shuffled through the papers, then held up one, a picture of something.

"That's the Overkill Device." Grant said, eyes narrowing.

"Exactly. When I was taking it apart, we salvaged the core component of the weapon – the rest of it was just power to extend the range. It took a few adjustments – they're still being applied down in the lab – but in just a few minutes, I think we'll have something that should be able to make it impossible for him to control his powers."

 _Even without Simmons Fitz can still work miracles._ Coulson was about to say something, but then a call came through Coulson's phone, on speaker.

 **Coulson's Office, the Playground  
September 25** **th** **, 2014**

"Sir," Koenig's voice said, "We've got a message coming through on one of Garrett's old Hydra frequencies. It's a phone number. That's it."

Coulson blinked. _Who would_ \- Raina. That was the most logical answer. Who else from Garrett's organization was still free? Who else would want to contact them? Raina had gotten away with enough of Skye's blood to synthesize a sample of G.H.-325, or at least, she thought so. And if Skye was right that the alien DNA and the artifact were linked... then maybe she was after it too. And wanted to use S.H.I.E.L.D. to deal with problems, just like she'd used them to deal with Garrett.

 _Only this time we can't let her get away,_ _n_ _ot with that artifact._

"Make the call on an encrypted line and patch it through to my office." Koenig nodded in the affirmative, and after just one ring, the phone was picked up on the other end, a familiar voice coming through the speaker.

"Hello?"

"Hello Raina."

"So you do remember me. I'm glad you got my message. It's been a while since we've spoken. Do you have a minute?" She spoke in that easy, casual way, as if they were friends. If he hadn't already experienced her manipulation first-hand, then he could easily imagine himself falling for it.

 _For that matter, I did fall for it._

"I'm kind of the middle of a manhunt. So unless you've got something to make my life significantly easier, then I'm afraid I don't."

"Why not? You need time to trace this call, don't you?" Coulson looked over at Skye, but she was already typing something out one handed on her computer. She nodded. She _was_ tracing the call. Good. "I take it that you haven't tracked down Mr. Creel or the item he stole."

Coulson smirked. His guess had been right. She wanted them to be her muscle. _Just what is her game, anyway?_

"What do you know about that?"

"I know Hydra's about to get their hands on it. Creel got a call last night, from his superiors." Which meant either Hydra knew or suspected that S.H.I.E.L.D. had tapped into the white noise. He'd hoped they'd have more time for it. Or maybe Hydra was just being especially cautious.

"So what is it that you have against Hydra anyway, Raina? I'd have thought you'd fit right in." If she really was a third player in this game, they needed to know her endgame, and the sooner the better.

"Hydra's only interested in one thing: World domination. And _that_ is _so_ 1945."

"And just what is the goal that you have in mind, Raina?"

"Right now, I want to make sure the Obelisk doesn't fall into the hands of people that don't understand it. You and your agency just might."

"Cut the crap, you want to use us to make sure you can get it out from under Hydra's nose while we're going after Creel."

"You're catching on, Coulson." He could hear the smirk in her voice, "I certainly would like to acquire it myself, but if it's a choice between S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra, I'd rather you end up with it. Did Skye try to hold it, by any chance?" Coulson tensed, and he saw Skye doing much the same. Ward's hands closed into fists. Coulson made a note to remind Ward that Raina needed to be captured alive. When it came to threats to Skye, Ward preferred finality – which Coulson understood. But they needed to know what Raina's game was.

"So how about you tell us where Creel is and we see if you're really as clever as you think you are?"

Raina chuckled. "Oh Director Coulson, I'm _exactly_ as clever as I think I am. Creel stole something from me. Fortunately, it's got an embedded tracker. But you'd better hurry if you want to find him – oh... and he's growing less stable by the second. I'd recommend not touching him."

"We'll take that under advisement." Coulson already knew about what had happened at the diner. Somehow, Creel had acquired the transformational ability of the artifact – the 'Obelisk' as Raina was calling it. And... if he was losing control of his powers...

Raina gave him the frequency for the tracker. "We'll talk soon, I'm sure." Coulson hung up and looked over at Ward. "Assemble the team. Take Hunter with you – he wants his shot at Creel."

Ward nodded, "Understood. But Hunter - will he obey orders?"

"That's the idea. Hartley talked to him before she flew out to the Fridge this morning.. As long as we keep paying him, he'll stick around, at least for the immediate future. We need more boots on the ground, and we don't have a lot to work with." He looked over at Fitz, "How sure are you that your solution will work?"

Fitz didn't answer for a moment, likely doing some sort of mental calculations, "Eighty, eight-five percent? Without more testing, there's no way to know."

"I'll have Trip bring along the big guns, armor piercing rounds." Ward said, then looked over at Skye.

"I'll stay and run the comms, hack into any local traffic security cameras. I know I can't go into the field just yet."

"Just until the doctors say your shoulder's fully healed." Ward told her. Then he looked back to Coulson, "Sir, with your permission?

"Dismissed."


	6. Intercepting the Exchange

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Obviously.

Thanks to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for being the beta-reader.

 **Author's Note:** This whole chapter was like pulling teeth, bar a few bits, so... not my best work. I'm sorry. But multiple attempts didn't produce anything better, so it's this, or nothing. Really am sorry.

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 6: Intercepting the Exchange

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 25th, 2014**

Hacking into the various traffic, street and ATM cameras in the area where Creel was – where Creel was going to give 'The Obelisk' to Hydra – was, as always, easy. _You'd think people would learn to upgrade their security a little bit once in a while._ Not so much, apparently.

"Alright, I don't have eyes on him yet, Grant." Skye told him. "Running facial recognition now." She hit a few more keys in rapid succession and it only took a few seconds for a ping, "got you now!" Skye muttered under her breath, then said, more loudly:

"I've got him. He's on a bench, middle of the area. I see a case next to him. That's gotta be The Obelisk."

"I see him." Grant replied. "Trip, can you get to firing position?"

"There's a building right across, perfect angle for him. He starts acting up, we'll take him down." Trip said confidantly, his voice cool and detached.

"Put that part off as long as possible." Coulson ordered. "We need to find out who his contact is."

"Understood Sir." Grant replied. Skye thought she heard a little exasperation in Grant's tone. Coulson had been very insistent on the 'finding Creel's contact' subject, and yeah, he was right to do so, but the point had been made a few times ago.

Skye checked the cameras, looking for anyone or anything that was suspicious. They had to figure out who was coming to meet him, soo she was especially searching for anyone walking towards the benches, or noticing Creel. Skye's program was checking faces against every list S.H.I.E.L.D. had access to. The program had even spotted a counterfeiter and thief wanted by the FBI, but one who had no ties to Hydra. Quickly, she sent a anonymous tip to the FBI on the man's location, then went back to looking for . Not their problem right now.

Suddenly, something pinged off of an ATM camera – in the distance, a man in a business suit walking towards Creel.

"Grant, I've got him." Skye reported. "Dark haired in a moving towards a pair of benches in the center."

"That's the package." Grant nodded. "I see the benches. Creel's just waiting for him. Can you get a bead on the new arrival?"

Skye ran the cameras. "No. He's got a newspaper covering all the good angles. It's pretty cliché, but it works."

"I'm moving to cover the meet sight." Trip said, "There's a perfect vantage point. I need three minutes."

"Let's hope, you have that much time." Skye said, "He's sitting down now."

 **The Exchange Site**

 **September 25th, 2014**

"Fitz, can you tinker with that microphone more? I'm not hearing anything from them." Ward said. He could watch Creel and the other man talk, but he couldn't get anything on what they were saying – and the angle from the truck was all wrong for trying to read even Creel's lips, let alone the other man's.

"I can try, but I'm not sure how lucky we're going to be." Fitz said, fidding with the equipment in the truck.

"I'm in position." Trip told them. "Setting up now."

"Wait for Creel to hand off the package, then shoot him." Ward ordered Hunter, are you in place with the Overkill Device?"

"I'm in position," Hunter answered. He was outside the truck, walking among the crowd, the Overkill Device in a gym bag. "Are you sure this thing is going to work, Fitz? I can't say I'm totally thrilled about putting my life in the hands of fancy tech I don't understand."

"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D," May replied dryly, from her positon seated next to Ward.

"When you have years of engineering experience working with this sort of technology, then you can question if my technology is going to work." Fitz protested. "And if it doesn't work, you'll just have to run. You're former SAS, I'm sure you can manage," the engineer looked back to Ward. "Here, try the microphone now."

Ward put the headphones over his ears, pleased to hear that he was actually getting voices this time. Creel was talking with someone else, a man who sounded English and who had an especially refined accent at that. He couldn't place it though but that didn't really surprise him. Ward knew some names and faces from other branches of Hydra but he'd hadn't actually met that many. He knew what Strucker, Whitehall, and List looked like but he only knew of them by reputation.

"Remember that compliance will be rewarded." The Englishman said slowly, enunciating each word clearly. _Shit._ Compliance. That had to be a trigger word.

 _Creel's not a willing recruit. He's been brainwashed. But why?_ Garrett had always said that Creel liked hurting people, that Creel had seemed enthusiastic about getting paid to use his powers. Had he balked, at some point? Or had someone just decided that it would be easier to brainwash the man and make _sure_ he was always under control.

That just seemed... wasteful. Pointless.

 _But then again, he is powered. Hydra doesn't give anyone a chance to say no, especially not them._

Brainwashed or not, they had to make sure Hydra couldn't use Creel again. Ward felt better about that fact because Creel had joined willingly at first – Garrett hadn't had to coerce him. He'd just made Creel a deal.

"I'm happy to comply." Creel replied slowly.

"Good. Now, give me the Obelisk." The man replied. Creel reached for the case that was sitting at his feet and passed it over to his handler. "Return to your van. Everything will be sorted out there – you've complied, and it shall be rewarded." The man stood, walking away.

"I've got a grab on his face," Skye's voice came through the comms. "Running it now."

"Alright. May, Ward, move on the new player. Follow him, grab the Obelisk. Capture him if you can, but getting his identity will be a good start." Coulson ordered. "Hunter, follow Creel. Trip, take the shot as soon as you have a clear angle. If that doesn't work, Hunter, you move in with the device. Creel is _not_ getting away."

"Got it." Ward confirmed. Ward was out the door, May right behind him, both of them intent following the Hydra agent. For the moment, they both moved casually, not drawing attention to themselves – Ward had his ICER under his jacket, May was, of course, not even carrying one.

"I'll move around to the right." May told Ward quietly, "It looks like doesn't know we're onto him, and as long as that's -"

The sound of a bullet from Trip's rifle rang through the crowded, noisy square. It was as if everything went on pause and mute for a split second, and then panic, as another bullet sounded. Then everyone began to scatter, running from the square, moving into cover. The target sped up his pace a little, but he still didn't run too fast, moving with the crowd as they moved. The whole mass of people parted, spilling into alleys and storefronts, running to the edges and the other ways out.

"Creel is _not_ down. I repeat, Creel is _not_ down." Trip said urgently. "Even these rounds have nothing."

"I'm moving in on him." Hunter reported. "If you could give me some backup so he doesn't break my ribs, that'd be great!"

"I'm on my way," Trip replied.

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 25th, 2014**

Keeping track of everything was proving to be harder on Skye than she'd like – she had the cameras constantly shifting on her laptop's screen and on the main screen on the wall so she could keep an eye on both targets and the team.

She watched Hunter go at Creel, and winced as she watched him take a punch to the ribs and go flying backwards, crashing into a streetlight poll. Free of any package to deliver, it looked like Creel was going to go full on assault. He stalked towards Hunter, pausing only briefly as his arms started to turn into metal.

"Oh shit," Trip called out over the comms. "He's using the tungsten from the rounds. He must have one in his fist."

"A little help here, please!" Hunter ground out, groaning in pain as he forced himself to his feet, moving around the pole to put it between himself and Creel.

"Use the device!" Fitz shouted, but Skye could see that Hunter didn't have it in his hand anymore – the bag was a few feet away, but there was no way Hunter was going to get to it without getting past Creel.

"I'm trying!" Hunter tried to lunge and roll past Creel to get to the bag, but the man moved far quicker than someone dragging around arms made of solid tungsten should be able to and blocked Hunter's path. The mercenary barely managed to evade a punch to the head for his trouble.

Skye glanced quickly over to the string of cameras tracking the Hydra agent carrying the Obelisk.

"May, Grant, the target is preparing to get away with the Obelisk. He's running!"

"Moving to intercept," May replied tersely, almost at the same time as Grant said: "Almost on him."

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**

 **September 25th, 2014**

Coulson looked at Agent Ward, standing in front of his desk at attention, hands behind his back - which was ramrod straight. It didn't take a genius to tell that Ward wasn't happy about the failed mission.

"Regret to report, Sir," Ward said, his tone lacking any inflection whatsoever, "that the Obelisk was not secured."

"I did watch the whole thing - most of it at least - Ward." Coulson pointed out. "You made the right call - Trip and Hunter alone just weren't enough to handle Creel. I would have made the same choice - May should have been able to easily secure the target and the package. Instead, things… didn't go according to plan."

"It was my operation, sir." Ward disagreed. "I didn't consider the possibility of Raina interfering like that."

"No one would have expected Raina to have gotten her hands on an armored car, or that she'd drive right at a crowd of people. We're only lucky everyone got away - otherwise we'd have a mess of injured and dead civilians to contend with as well. It would have been more ideal if the move hadn't forced May to get out of the way and lose her grip on the other target, but..." Coulson was far, _far_ from happy that Raina had gotten away with the Obelisk, and even less so when it was combined with the fact that she quite possibly had a working sample of GH-325. Which, if that was the reason Skye could hold it…

That meant, at least in theory, that Raina could too. Which was an even less pleasant prospect than her simply having it.

 _But what does she want it for? Hell, what does Hydra want it for? Is it a component to something, some weapon that could spread its effects? Or do they still need to study it?_ Hydra wasn't going to just let the thing they'd tried so hard to get their hands on get away from them. They surely were going to try to track down Raina as well.

"Your team still managed to take out Creel - Fitz was right about the Overkill Device dealing with him. And Hunter proved himself a valuable asset." Things hadn't gone according to plan with Creel, but Hunter had still managed to deploy the weapon in time to stop the bastard from breaking Trip's skull open. And he could take orders, which was essential.

"One objective out of three is a failure under any metric, sir. I made the call, I made the mistakes."

"I'm not saying you didn't make mistakes, Agent Ward. I'm just saying that you don't need to break out a whip and start flagellating yourself like you're a character from _The Da Vinci Code_. Yes, if you need me to say it, you failed. Raina has the Obelisk, and the courier got away. We have his face, but that doesn't count for much." It did count for something though. From what Simmons had managed to get to him, Coulson could match the target's face to Sunil Bakshi. He wasn't in charge, but he was a high ranking official in Hydra, and he was the kind of person that had Simmons's coworkers and bosses running scared whenever there was even a rumor of him taking interest in something related to what they were working on.

 _Which means that this is something that is too important to trust to someone lower._ Hydra wanted this Obelisk. Very, very, very badly.

Ward nodded, "Orders, sir?"

"At the moment, nothing."

"Sir?"

"Ward, I'm taking you off duty for the next two days."

"Sir, I know I failed the objective, but I can still-"

"This isn't a punishment, Ward." Coulson reassured the men before he could continue to defend himself. "Until we have more information, there's no point in rushing ahead blindly. I want a mission report on my desk in two days, complete with what you would have changed about the mission in hindsight." Ward needed to relax or he was going to work himself to death. But he wasn't going to let himself do it after a failed mission.

 _Skye's been good for him, but nearly a decade of Specialist work still has him with a lot of habits he needs to unlearn._ Purely from a staffing perspective, S.H.I.E.L.D. could not afford to let a specialist as capable as Ward burn himself out, but Coulson also didn't want to see the man, purely as one person to another, collapse under the weight of the job.

If Ward didn't learn to cut himself more slack, he was going to crack.

"You can start working on the report tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm ordering you have a little downtime. If you can appreciate the contradiction there. You need to relax, Ward. If you don't, you're going to burn out. We're operating with a fraction of the resources and personnel S.H.I.E.L.D. used to have, and an equally small fraction of the intelligence. We're going to have more failures. You can't be like this every time the mission goes wrong."

"Understood sir." Ward dropped his hands to his sides loosely. "I'll... try to keep that in mind."

"Dismissed."

 **Coulson's Office, The Playground**  
 **September 28th, 2014**

"You wanted to see me?" Skye asked, stepping into D.C.'s office.

"I did." Coulson nodded. He started shuffling through some papers on his desk, then handed her a thin folder. "I've done some digging, and I've found some more examples of the strange pattern we found in the Totteroff Building and on the Obelisk." Skye accepted the folder and opened it up. There were three photographs of very similar designs, carved into wood, and… a chalkboard, in one case. Or what looked kind of like a chalkboard.

Skye's brow furrowed as she looked at it. "Sir… where did you find these?"

"Classified." Coulson replied. "I need you to reach out to your Rising Tide contacts - look for anything resembling this design. It's the only lead we have on the Obelisk."

Skye started to protest the way Coulson just blithely dropped the word classified as if it was enough of an answer, but then stopped short. He wasn't going to tell her just if she demanded to know.

But the secrets were starting to pile on. There was something off about the way he was asking her to do this, giving her the pictures without even a little bit of context. This was closer to the chest than he'd ever been before.

"Yes sir." She finally said after a long moment. "I'll see what I can do."


	7. Who's Got the Blood?

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Do I really need to include this? Probably not, we all know it by now. But it's part of my routine by now.

Thanks to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for beta-reading for me. As always, you make this fic more readable.

Don't forget, Ward didn't side with Garrett at the end of 1x17 – he stayed with the Team instead. So anything he learned in canon during the span from 1x18 to 1x22 ... he didn't learn in this AU.

This is a short chapter again – you're probably going to keep seeing this sort of length going forward. I have inspiration for this fic, but a lot less than I used to (for which I blame the 3b finale, even if I didn't watch 3b at all), so we'll probably see shorter chapters. Same amount of story, just shorter chapters, because getting the scenes out is harder.

Out of the Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 7: Who's Got the Blood?

 **Simmons' Apartment**

 **October 8th, 2014**

Coulson still wasn't sure if he'd made the right call in sending Simmons into Hydra. Between her and Agent Morse, he had managed to get some useful intel, but Simmons was still having trouble making friends in her workplace. Which was important if she was going to increase the amount of intel she could get.

Ward's crash-course undercover training had helped. She knew how to give the best combination of truth and lies – the right nuggets of truth. And really, Simmons wasn't lying all that much to begin with, from what she'd told him. Apart from her loyalties, anyway. She had a few co-workers she was somewhat close with, in a collegial sense, but still.

On the other hand, Simmons hadn't been caught yet. Morse had picked up zero hints that anyone suspected her of anything more than being a scientist who was working with Hydra because it offered her more opportunities to do the kind of research she wanted to do and it also had more resources to do that research with. By all accounts, it seemed to be a cover that Hydra had bought hook, line and sinker.

 _And why wouldn't they? All too many of our best people are making that same choice._ The attempt to recruit Agent 33 had gone downhill as well – Hydra had arrived and made a better offer before he could get there. The talent-grab was _not_ going in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s favor right now.

At least Simmons hadn't _actually_ made that choice.

Of course, judging by the contents of her fridge, the other problem with her job at Hydra seemed to be that it gave her no time to shop for food.

Coulson closed the door to Simmons's fridge as he heard her front door open, and stood there, waiting for her to walk in, arms crossed. He raised an eyebrow as she came in, gun raised.

"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?" Simmons lowered her gun, an almost exasperated look on her face. Opening her fridge again, he reached inside, taking out a glass bottle. "Siracha? Beer? That's all? What kind of diet is that?"

"I also have tea," Simmons pointed out with a smile, then rested her hands on her hips, "and if my diet's _such_ a concern, then perhaps dead-drops shouldn't involve fast food. I've eaten at more fast food 'restaurants' in the last few months than I have in the five years previous. I didn't used to have to work so hard to maintain my weight."

Coulson chuckled, "A fair point. We'll revisit that particular protocol." If there was one thing Coulson knew though, it was how likely Simmons's fridge was to be bare. So he'd come prepared. "I picked up some groceries." He lifted the bag onto the counter and began emptying it, identifying each item as he took it out. "It's basic, but I do good basic. I'll cook, you debrief." It was easier for him to sneak into her place for these debriefings than contacting her any other way. Hydra didn't seem to be watching the apartment all that closely.

Simmons nodded, "Do you remember Donnie Gill?"

Coulson nodded. He remembered just about every case he'd ever been on. Gill's had been... unpleasant. It was always terrible when someone with real promise went bad, but it was even worse when it wasn't even their idea. It was always painful to watch when someone else influenced them into making wrong decisions and crossing lines because they were lonely or vulnerable or just easy to trick. Such had been the case with Gill.

And if that wasn't bad enough, then, somehow, he'd internalized what it was that his ice-machine did. And so he'd been packed off to the Sandbox. A facility which Hydra had taken during their 'uprising'.

"Did Hydra capture him when they took the Sandbox?"

"I don't think so. I think they're trying to find him, or they just captured him. I saw his picture in my supervisor's docket. He said it was 'another acquisition', which could mean they have him now. But I've been studying some samples – at the very least, they have samples from him. I don't know if they were taken from the Sandbox's labs, or..." Simmons trailed off.

"Or from him." _If they don't already have him in a secure facility, I am not losing this one._ Not so soon after losing 33 to Hydra.

"Exactly. On the positive side, I do have an idea as to how his abilities work – it's not genetic... the combination of the lightning striking the device while he touched it essentially infused him with the freezing agent. He can more or less create liquid nitrogen on demand when he touches something. As far as I can tell – this is a _lot_ of speculation."

Coulson nodded as he grabbed a pot and a pan. "Can you peel the potatoes while I start on the steak?"

"Of course." Simmons pulled a peeler out of a drawer. "Of course, I'd find out a lot more about what they have planned if they would stop wasting my talents in the downstairs labs. I mean, yes, I have access to the kinds of tools and devices we'd _never_ have back at The Playground, but still, they keep insisting on blind samples and overly compartmentalizing the details." She frowned, "Though I think I may have attracted the attention of someone from upstairs. I just don't know if it's in a good way or a bad way."

"What do you mean?"

"Two days ago, I saw Mr. Bakshi talking to my supervisor. And they glanced in my direction more than once."

"And you don't know if it's because someone likes your work, or because they suspect you." Coulson made a mental note to double-check with Agent Morse. It was going to be hard – getting in contact with her on short notice was risky at best. He'd given her very clear instructions – to escape with Simmons if there was a sign of Hydra being about to close in on her, but still... forewarning could save both of their lives. "Do you have any reason to think they're onto you?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's not as if I'm a champion liar. But I've also done my best to use what Ward taught me, and to engage in selective truths. It's much easier."

"And much harder to pick up on. Exactly." Coulson nodded. "You're very likeable. You need to use it."

"I try. But I just – it feels _wrong_ to just pretend to be someone's friend just to get information from them." Coulson watched her focus intently on the potatoes for a few minutes. "So... how is everyone?" she asked after that span was done and he flipped the steaks.

"Doing well. Mostly. Hartley lost her hand and we sent her to the Fridge to convalesce under the watchful eye of Agent Hand, but apart from that... well, Fitz and Skye miss you – a lot. So does Trip. Ward has to act like he doesn't know where you are, but he's also Ward."

Simmons laughed, "So he's making a show of how he doesn't miss me all that much?"

"Pretty much," Coulson agreed with a chuckle of his own.

"How is Fitz actually doing though?"

"Better than when you first vanished. But you two work a hell of a lot better as a pair." _And you're the one who split them up, so don't complain about the quality of Fitz's work because of it._

"Is he angry at me, for just... leaving, like that?"

"If there had been any other way, I wouldn't have split you two up. Or let them think you'd just left."

"You don't need to apologize, sir. I knew the consequences when I agreed to go undercover."

"If you need to be pulled out, I'll do it," Coulson assured her, "If you start getting too far gone, if you can't keep it up, tell me. I know this work isn't what you're cut out for."

"Maybe not, but none of us are really doing what we were cut out for anymore," Simmons pointed out. "Not since S.H.I.E.L.D. fell."

 **Grant Ward's Room**

 **October 8th, 2014**

"Hydra wants Donnie Gill." Ward said slowly. "Well, it makes sense. He's powered, and Strucker is obsessed with powered people. The order has probably gone down through the ranks for everyone to get their hands on every single gifted they can find."

"And Strucker is in charge of Hydra," Skye nodded slowly.

"That's the best theory I've got." Ward agreed. "I have no idea for sure, but none of the other heads where anywhere near poised to take over if Pierce fell. If I had to guess, the hierarchy would go Strucker, Dr. List and then the various regional heads." Ward had told her what little he knew about various Hydra heads – Strucker, List, Whitehall – but he only knew them all by reputation, just a few basic details. He could probably point them out in a lineup too, but... he didn't know _them_.

"So what do you think they're going to do? How are they going to go after him?"

"Hydra's got a pretty simple system for recruitment, especially for gifteds. They'll send an acquisition team. That team will have everything. The carrot, the stick, and the bullet." Ward related the information blandly, without much in the way of inflection.

"They'll start with money, or power, or whatever else might convince them. If that doesn't work, threats, capture. Whatever it takes to get their hands on the gifted. And if that doesn't work, they kill them," Ward looked away at the disgusted expression on Skye's face.

"They'll just kill any gifted? Even one that's not a threat?" Skye shook her head, "I... I get that Garrett... did it never – Grant, how did none of this ever get to you?" Ward knew – well, was pretty sure – that she wasn't judging him or condemning him, not entirely, anyway. But it still hurt a little...

"As far as Hydra is concerned, anything or anyone that can't be contained, controlled or co-opted is a potential threat. Especially someone with powers. And threats are eliminated quickly and efficiently." Ward looked back at her. "You're going to say something about that being the difference between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, aren't you?" Looking a little miffed that he read her so well, Skye nodded slowly. "It's true. Somewhat. S.H.I.E.L.D. was always far less willing to take the kill shot. They drew the lines differently, but make no mistake, S.H.I.E.L.D. will still take that shot."

"That's not S.H.I.E.L.D." Skye insisted, "When they kill – when we kill... it's only to protect people."

"It's still killing. The blood on my hands wasn't just put there by Garrett and Hydra, Skye. I killed plenty of people for S.H.I.E.L.D. Some for things they had done, some for things they would do. A powered person is dangerous – and if you can't be sure they won't use their ability to hurt others, you have to make a choice." Skye's attitude was perhaps naive, under some perspectives, but he appreciated her outlook. It had been one of the things that had drawn him to her.

She was so determined to see the good in everyone, everything. Even him. But S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't perfect. And it couldn't be. Nothing could. That's why specialists existed. That's why _he_ existed.

"If Hydra gets their hands on Donnie, they could brainwash him. Use him against innocent people." Ward finished. "Hydra has ways to make sure that someone does what they're told.

"So what, if Hydra gets to him first, you just want to shoot him?"

"I usually don't want to kill _anyone_ , Skye. But that is my job. I don't think Coulson will give that order, though." Ward believed that. Coulson could be ruthless, but Ward didn't think he had it in him to have Donnie Gill shot just because Hydra captured him. "Unless he was about to hurt you or someone else on the team, or some innocent... I wouldn't kill him." If not for Skye, his metric would have been different. But Skye wouldn't want him to eliminate the threat unless it was immediate. It was the right thing to do, as far as she was concerned, and so it had become for Ward as well.

'What would Skye do' was now his moral compass. He couldn't always live by it – not if he wanted to make sure Skye was safe and that Hydra was defeated, but he would live by it as much as he could.

"Just because someone makes it an order doesn't make it right!" Skye cut in, "I mean... yeah, I don't think Coulson would give the order either, but... if he does... you shouldn't just kill an innocent kid!" Skye stood up from the bed, stepping away from him. Ward felt his throat go dry and tighten as she moved away, an actual note of condemnation in her voice this time. A small one, but it was there.

"Skye-" Ward started, but she shook her head,

"Grant... I just need a bit, okay? I know S.H.I.E.L.D. has blood on it's hands. I... I just don't like to think about it. I don't like to think about you killing people. Underneath everything that bastard Garrett and your family did to you, you're a good person, Grant, and I get that. And it's not like I didn't go into this relationship knowing that you kill people for a living. I just need a little bit." Taking a deep breath, Skye reached for the door handle.

"I... alright. Understood. I love you." Ward told her. Intellectually, he knew this wasn't her walking out on them, not over this, not over a hypothetical. But still... a small part of him couldn't help but panic at the possibility.

"Me too, Grant." Skye replied softly before leaving the room.


	8. Brain Freeze

**Disclaimer:** Nope, don't own.

 **Author's Note:** I'm sure it's possible I'll get some nasty and negative responses for what happens in this chapter. Please, feel free to discuss them with me in comments/reviews, private messages or on my tumbler (alkenifanfiction). In close-in divergence AUs, I like to work with the raw materials the show gives me and sometimes that means it's just eminently more practical to do things in the fic I wouldn't have done had I been writing the show.

Even flames are welcome, if you feel you must flame me. BUT, bear in mind that all flames will be used to roast marshmallows.

Thanks as ever to Riley Holden/Colormeblue for beta-reading

Out of The Shadows and Into the Light

By Alkeni

Chapter 8: Brain Freeze

 **Fitz's Lab, The Playground**

 **October 8th, 2014**

"This is really the sort of work Jemma should be doing," Fitz muttered.

As it was, with Jemma being god knew where - though Fitz was fairly certain Ward knew where that was - well, there wasn't much to work with. You couldn't be as smart as he was and work side by side with a biochemist of Jemma's caliber without picking up on a lot of the basic principles. But he was working in a relative information vacuum. They had no real idea how Donnie Gill's powers worked. Obviously they were related to the ice-machine, somehow its' abilities had been transferred into _him_ , but in terms of how it actually froze someone...

Without an idea of how it worked, coming up with some sort of response to it, a way to contain Donnie's abilities or render them temporarily inert was... difficult.

"That's true," Mack said from his position next to him, "but she's not here, and you know how she thinks better than anyone else. So if anyone here can approach the problem the way she would..."

Fitz scoffed, "If you knew Jemma like I do, you'd know that _no one_ can know how she thinks." That wasn't entirely true, Fitz had to concede, but still, sometimes it was very hard to figure out what she was thinking when it came to anything but science.

Which, he supposed, was rather the core of the problem.

"Regardless," Fitz said, stepping back from the equipment and throwing up his hands in disgust, "I have nothing." And he really didn't have any idea how to respond to all this. "I just can't see Donnie volunteering to join Hydra when they come knocking." Fitz said, walking over to where he was working - still - on the disassembleable ICER.

He'd been working on the project on and off for months, whenever he could spare an hour or when he was stuck on something else and needed to clear his thoughts. The problem was, as it turned out, that Fitz was too good of an engineer. He picked up the pieces of his latest attempt, looking them over for a moment and tossing them aside without another word. Complete rubbish.

"I'm not sure Hydra's big on giving people choices. It's probably one of those join or die sort of things," Mack observed, "I mean, you told me about those bombs in people's eyes that Garrett used in his super-soldiers. Sounds to me like Hydra likes to be sure they can control their people."

Fitz started to reply with the obvious - that Hydra would have to capture Donnie first to implant him with a camera and bomb, which was unlikely given his new powers - when two things occurred to him: Donnie was in fact at the Sandbox, where Hydra had to have had people. So it was entirely possible that they could have fit him with a bomb.

The second thing that occurred to him was that if they did have a bomb in Donnie's head, complete with a camera like Mike Peterson and the rest of the Centipede soldiers had, Hydra would already have him. But... the specifics weren't Mack's point. The point was that Hydra was perfectly willing to coerce people into following them.

"I suppose that's true." And Donnie was... well, he'd let himself be tricked and manipulated into helping someone for the wrong reasons. Hydra might be able to exploit that. Again, Fitz had trouble believing Donnie would go that far - it was one thing to want to sell technology to Ian Quinn given that his public reputation had been nearly spotless at the time - and quite another to willingly work for the so-called 'Nazi Death Cult' that was Hydra.

 _Don't let Coulson hear you call them that._ Skye and Lance Hunter had both referred to Hydra as Nazis once, at separate times, in Director Coulson's range of hearing. The Director had proceeded to give them (and everyone else in the same room) a thorough and detailed lecture on why Hydra wasn't Nazi, and how assuming that they were was a bad idea and made fighting Hydra more difficult.

Returning his attention back to the ICER, he brought up the design schematic on his tablet. The problem was that he'd designed the ICER too well the first time he'd made it. He'd made it fit together so perfectly, made it so well-engineered, that it was very difficult for someone to disassemble and then reassemble without a great deal of expensive equipment and expertise in engineering.

In order to make the ICER dissassemble-able, it had to be made of discrete parts that could separate. Which weakened the over structural integrity of the device - it was impossible for it to not have weak points at the spots where it could be taken apart. Moreover, the inside of the gun was changed by that very same problem - discrete parts that could be removed and then put back together;

And so far, he hadn't been able to get a disassemble-able ICER to fire the incredibly delicate bullets it was designed to. At least, not without the bullet exploding in the chamber.

"Why do you keep fiddling with that design?" Mack asked, looking over Fitz's shoulder curiously. "I mean, the version you have works great."

"It works _perfectly_ ," Fitz countered. "But this isn't to address any sort of design flaw. It's about...well, apparently Ward likes to be able to disassemble his gun. Something about doing to helps him focus or whatever. I don't really get it. Must be some sort of specialist thing." Fitz wasn't really self-aware enough to make the connection between Ward's desire to be able to disassemble and then reassemble a weapon was the same kind of thing as his own penchant for doing advanced mathematical equations and engineering puzzles in his head.

"It's mostly a project I work on when I need to take a break from something that's giving me trouble or when I have a spare hour. I _thought_ it would be pretty easy to make. At this point... oh bloody hell, I'm still working on it at this point because I'm going to _prove_ this thing can work effectively this way."

"Maybe I can help?" Mack suggested, "I mean, you've been knocking your head against this brick wall for what, months?"

"Something like that," Fitz agreed sullenly.

"What you probably need then is a fresh pair of eyes on the project. Fresh brain too. Not saying I'm as good as you are with the technical stuff, but I do know what I'm doing." Mack held out a hand for the tablet, and after a long moment, Fitz handed it to him.

Mack did know his stuff, after all. Maybe he would be a good pair of fresh eyes on the problem, or at least provide a different perspective. At the very least, there was no way Mack could make the whole project more difficult.

 _ **Maribel Del Mar**_ **, Morocco**

 **October 9th, 2014**

If Donnie Gill was trying to avoid attracting the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, freezing an entire ship in place in the water somehow seemed to Skye to not be a good idea. Especially a ship on the North African coast. Idly, Skye wondered how the local Moroccans were reacting to this strange and sudden development.

But he'd gone and done it and now they were here, and Hydra was either _also_ here or right behind them.

"Ward, I want you to stay up top." May ordered. "Keep your eyes open for Hydra and cover us when we need to make an exit. Skye, Hunter, you're with me. We're going into the ship to find Gill."

"Got it." Grant replied over the comms.

"There's not a lot of room for any margin of error," May said. "Somehow, I don't think Hydra is going to be inclined to take no for an answer when it comes to Gill."

"It's not as if the old S.H.I.E.L.D. would have taken no either," Grant pointed out. "One way or the other, they'd have brought him in."

"If we don't bring him in, Hydra brings him in... or kills him." May replied.

"And I, for one, would rather Hydra _not_ have this guy working for them. If I want to be frozen solid by someone's touch, I could just go looking for my ex-wife." Hunter added,"So can we get moving?"

"Let's," Skye agreed. This wasn't going to end with Donnie Gill dying. He'd screwed up, made some bad choices... but he sure as hell didn't deserve to die. He deserved a chance to try and make something of his life. How much he could do that while having the power to freeze things at his touch was a different question entirely.

"May has no idea how right she is." Grant voice came in low over the secondary channel she'd hacked into her comm unit and his. The advantage of running comms was that she had free access to all the equipment. Skye had had a brainwave a week ago: if they ever ran into a situation in the field where Grant's knowledge of Hydra would help, give them an immediately useful insight, he couldn't exactly share that information on an open channel.

So she'd hacked a secondary frequency into their comm units. She'd taken a page out of Hydra's book and hidden it between and underneath ordinary channels. It was only really any good over short distances, so it wasn't viable in a situation where Skye was running comms from far away or back at the Playground or something, but it was an improvement over the previous situation.

Grant's voice had come in scratchy and distorted, some fuzz playing into the channel. As she followed May and Hunter further into the _Mirabel Del Mar_ , Skye made a mental note to see if she couldn't fix that _._

They'd almost made it towards a door to the lower levels when she heard two quickfire shots ring out from May's gun. Once again, Skye was reminded that May was just _that_ good. She'd barely seen the door open before May was dropping the Hydra agents.

"Coulson, we're not alone." May said, raising one hand to her earpiece. The gesture must've been because of some kind of muscle memory - it wasn't as if she _needed_ to do that, thanks to the fancy hardware FitzSimmons had designed.

"No, we're definitely not," Grant added over the main channel. "I count... ten more guys, at least. And one of them in a fancy suit. Looks familiar."

"The guy from the meeting with Creel?" Skye guessed. If they could get him along with saving Donnie, that would be a major boost. Maybe they could even figure out what the hell it was that Hydra wanted with that... thing. And what the hell it even was.

A disturbing thought occurred to Skye - the last time they'd seen this guy, Raina had been there. As far as she was concerned, with the team's crazy luck, Raina was going to end up here too. _I don't think we need a damn wildcard in this mess._

"It's him." Grant confirmed.

"The priority is Gill." Coulson said. "We get him out of here now before Hydra can get him. If we get the guy running the operation, that's an added bonus, but don't risk the primary objective."

"Snag Mr. Freeze, leave the bastard in the suit for if we can swing it. Sounds like a plan," Hunter observed dryly. May just shot him a dirty look, and then they were inside the ship.

The ship's innards were a mess of narrow stairways, pipes and tubing along the walls, catwalks, walkways, and ladders There had to be more than just this for a ship to actually, you know, _carry_ stuff, but if there was, Skye wasn't seeing it.

"Skye, you're point. Hunter, you take the rear," May gave the order quietly. Surprisingly, Hunter didn't have any snarky commentary to add. _Well, he was a professional mercenary._

They were operating blind, trying to find Donnie inside the ship. Finally Skye found him as she reached an overhanging catwalk some distance away from the position Donnie held: an entrance to a cluster of pipes - somewhere he could easily get lost.

Standing in front of Donnie, her back to them, was some woman standing firm and confident. She looked familiar. And then Skye heard her voice, echoing off the metal walls.

"Minds like ours... they need to be used."

 _Oh my god._ Simmons. Simmons was Hydra.

 _Wait, no fuck- that doesn't even make the slightest bit of-_

And then it clicked. Grant knew where she was. And she hadn't pressed, just like she said she wouldn't. But Grant must have been helping her prepare for undercover. Coulson didn't know just how good Grant had been at undercover, but he did know Grant's official S.H.I.E.L.D. record.

Skye watched, somewhat stunned, as she heard May and Hunter approach, taking up positions nearby, also with an eye on Simmons and Donnie.

"I'm tired of being used!" Donnie said grimly, his jaw set. His tone was tense, held tightly - like one light push and he'd snap. Donnie was dangerous.

 _Being hunted like an animal can do that. Being put in a cage in the Sandbox can too, I'm guessing._ Besides, this was Hydra recruiting him. Or so he thought.

 _What the hell was Coulson thinking sending Simmons undercover? She can't lie; she can't do any 'bad girl shenanigans!' Grant was good, but could he really teach someone how to lie for undercover in... how much teaching time had he even had?_

Now that she knew it was Simmons, she could get that it wasn't confidence in her stance. It was fear. Nerves.

She was afraid that Donnie would freeze her.

As they kept watching, Simmons took a small breath and started talking, her voice level, calm, soothing - or at least an attempt at it. "Take a deep breath and clear your mind."

 **Maribel Del Mar, Morocco**

 **October 9th, 2014**

 _"Take a deep breath and clear your mind."_

Shit. Ward knew exactly what that meant. And he recognized the voice coming in over the main comms: Simmons. There was no reason for Simmons - and what the hell was Hydra doing putting _Simmons_ into the field like this, a complete misuse of her talents as a scientist - to use those words unless she'd been coached and she'd only be coached to say them if they were going to useful.

 _Which means that Hydra brainwashed Gill at the Sandbox. Which means his programming is still in place. Weaker, maybe frayed since he managed to get away, but as long as it's still there, there's no way around it for her._

"Surrender and you will find meaning."

Removing one hand from his rifle, Ward reached up to just inside his collar and fiddled with the comm device Skye had given him so they could speak on the secondary channel. Once the channel was switched on, he spoke in a low, urgent voice.

"Skye, you can't let Simmons finish. Those are the phrases Hydra uses to activate underlying brainwashing programming. Donnie's already been brainwashed and they're trying to bring him in!" He knew Skye wouldn't be able to say anything back

"Surrender and you will findpeace." Simmons continued, her voice still calm, level. _Seriously, who the hell came up with these trigger phrases anyway?_

"Take a deep breath,"Simmons went on.

"Skye, we don't exactly have a lot of time here! Stop her! Somehow!" If she could just... make noise, throw them off somehow-

The sound of a bullet ringing out, bouncing off metal broke through the comms.

"Please tell me that wasn't you trying to shoot Simmons!" Ward hissed.

"I wasn't aiming to hit!" Skye replied, her voice coming over the main channel.

Before Ward could respond, he saw Hydra move. The man from the meet with Creel was already heading in and more Hydra personnel were swarming onto the boat.

Fuck again.

Switching back to the main channel quickly, Ward spoke, both hands on his rifle again. "May, Skye, Hunter, you're about to have company. Hydra's moving in. Keep Simmons' cover if you can." Extracting her would be easier said than done at this point.

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Hunter snarked.

"Shooting at her and missing seems like a pretty good bet," May replied flatly. "Nice work, Skye."

"Well, we had to interrupt them somehow. That seemed the best idea. But can someone explain to me what the hell is going on with her!? What was Coulson thinking!"

 **Maribel Del Mar, Morocco**

 **October 9th, 2014**

"Coulson was thinking that we needed someone inside Hydra's R&D." May replied calmly as she started moving. "And if we're going to stop Donnie from freezing more than Simmons's jacket, we need to move. Now."

May's words jolted Skye out of her half-frozen shock. The combined surprises of seeing Simmons there, and then the revelation that Donnie was brainwashed...

Could they even get him away from Hydra?

 _Yeah, we will. Hydra couldn't win this one. They'd already done enough to him. We'll just have to -_ what was it called? Skye was on her feet and running after May as she wracked her brain, trying to find the right word. Deprogramming? That sounded right.

They'd have to deprogram him somehow.

As they ran after Donnie who was now running after Simmons, Skye watched May take careful aim with her pistol and shoot into one of the steam pipes, bursting a hole and venting steam right in front of Donnie.t only held him up for seconds though, as he touched the pipe and froze it solid, ice creeping across quickly. It was both cool and terrifying to see the guy's powers in action like this but at least this time he wasn't almost freezing Simmons.

"I'm going to reiterate May's order," Coulson's voice said over the comms from the Bus, flying cloaked somewhere over their heads. He'd been listening to the main channel the whole time, but he hadn't said anything. "Maintaining Simmons's cover is as much as priority as stopping Hydra from taking Donnie."

"As much? What the hell? Donnie's innocent, we can't just let Hydra take him!" _Innocent and brainwashed._ Godamnit, if only she could tell Coulson what Grant had just told her. But she couldn't - there was no way to 'suddenly get' this idea.

"We need her inside Hydra. She's why we know about Donnie in the first place."

 **Maribel Del Mar, Morocco**

 **October 9th, 2014**

It was all Ward could do to avoid shooting the Hydra soldiers and go in to help Skye and the others. Practically speaking, it was a bad idea. Hydra had too many many agents, and if they had Donnie on their side... Ward really didn't like the idea of turning into a human Popsicle.

And there was the risk of Simmons getting caught in the crossfire or Hydra getting suspicious of she didn't get shot. Ward was a good shot. He could shoot someone in a non-lethal place easily but there was always risk of complications, especially with a sniper rifle like the one that he was holding.

The Hydra agents he was watching started to move and, from around the corner, more arrived, led by the man in the suit. Then Simmons... and then Donnie.

"Hydra is back on the top and they have the target. Repeat, they have Donnie. He's coming with them, and it looks like he's coming without restraint." _Does Coulson even know that Hydra has brainwashing capabilities?_ If he started shooting, this could only go badly. Hydra was going to get Donnie. That was the only option.

Briefly, Ward contemplated shooting the gifted scientist, the crosshairs of his scope settling over Donnie's chest. But he dropped that idea in seconds. Coulson would probably be accepting of it, in the end. He'd been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for decades. Coulson knew how it worked, knew what specialists did. Ward doubted the Director would be happy about it, but...

But Skye on the other hand. No. Skye wouldn't want it done. And that's what was most important. It was a risk, but Donnie was a brainwashing victim and, unlike Creel, he hadn't ever made a free choice to work for Hydra.

"We can't let Hydra have him. If he's chosen them, then he's the enemy." Coulson said flatly. "Take him out." If Skye had any verbal reaction to the news, it was drowned out over the sound of the three inside the boat running towards the exit.

"I don't think it's that simple sir. And if I start shooting, this could go bad for Simmons." Ward replied, resisting the order. "May, where are you?" If May and the others came at them from the rear, they had a chance of pulling this off, of getting Donnie and keeping Simmons's cover intact (without risking her life _too_ much in the process).

"We're stuck inside! Donnie's frozen the door in place!" Skye shouted as he heard metal banging on the door.

Ward didn't let anything show physically, his finger still on the trigger as the man in the suit said something to Donnie in a low voice. The scientist walked towards the edge of the boat and held his hands over it. Ice started to grow, a tiny patch spreading across the boat. He was freezing the entire thing solid, and the ice seemed to be expanding faster the farther it spread, like some impossible mirror opposite of a raging inferno.

 _Skye and the others - they'll freeze to death!_

Any hesitancy to shoot was gone. But he didn't need to kill Donnie. Like almost any gifted, it seemed his powers replied on concentration and he wouldn't be able to concentrate when a bullet hit his shoulder and sent him falling into the water under the concussive force of the hit. It might even stop Hydra from taking him in long enough for them to find him.

But most importantly...

Ward lined up his shot with Donnie's shoulder and fired, watching the bullet connect and sending the man spinning off the boat and into the Mediterranean.

Most importantly, it would save Skye. Skye, May and Hunter.


End file.
